Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver: Rose and Thorn
by DragonSeer
Summary: With Raziel and Lara off, Rose needs someone else durable enough for her to look up to. Who better but Nosgoth's Guardian of the Pillar of Balance? ....Ha, and you all complained about the short chappy!
1. Blooming Rose

All righty, installment three. Again, if you haven't read Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver: World's Collide or Path's Reconverge, you will not understand this story, so please read the others first. Hey, over a hundred reviews on each, they've got to be pretty good! As always, no one belongs to me except Jials and Rose. Rose is very much mine, annoyance as she is. As for you Kain fans, you'll be happy. This one will be highlighting him much more than the last two did.

The moon rose over the dark mansion, its roof seeming to reach up to touch the sky. Mist slowly crept past the front door, making a feeling of silence and solitude. The shadows bathed the entire place in an aura of stillness. But that stillness was suddenly broken by a voice from within.

"Ball!"

"GET IT AWAY FROM ME!"

A loud resounded crash rang out into the night. From in his trailer, Bryce shot straight up in surprise, then realized what it must be. Bloody vampires, up at all hours of the morning . . . He rolled over and covered his head with his pillow.

Hillary, from inside the mansion, didn't have the luxury to go back to sleep. Something had been broken again, and now he had to go face down the two occupants of the mansion while Lord and Lady Croft were gone to find out what exactly it was that was broken this time.

Kain turned and glared at the little five-year-old brat who was currently following him, throwing balls at the back of his head. She latched herself happily onto his arm. He growled down at her and in utter fury, grabbed her by the back of her shirt, ripped her off his arm, and threw her as far away from his body as he could manage. Unfortunately, this took her through the wall on the other side of the room. The sudden realization of what he'd done smashed into his consciousness and he stood, looking where she had gone worriedly, wondering if he had killed her. A sudden tugging on his clan tabard made him look down to see Rose there.

"Again?" she asked, grinning happily, obviously not effected by the wood she had just gone through. Kain blinked at her a moment, stunned. He had to admit this little girl kept catching him off-guard with her resilience.

"Again?" she inquired again. An eyebrow raised, Kain complied, sending her flying through the wall again. Rose appeared next to him and tugged again on the cloth.

"Again?"

"No more."

"Pwease?"

"No."

"Oh dear," Hillary's voice sighed from the hall, looking at the damage done. Multiple things had been broken ever since Kain had stepped into the house, but he had a feeling if Rose was alone with a normal baby-sitter there would have been worse hell, so he just swallowed any complaints and cleaned up after the messes.

"It's time for you to go to bed."

"Oooohh," Rose groaned. "I dun wanna."

Kain easily picked her up and walked up the stairs toward her room, ignoring her protests. He pushed open her room's door, walked over the mess, and set her down on her bed. He pulled the covers over her up to her chin and pointed a claw at her.

"Go to sleep."

She opened her mouth apparently to argue, but yawned instead, blinked sleepily and closed her eyes. Kain walked back out of the room, closed the door softly, and sat down in a chair downstairs. He rubbed his temples as he could feel a headache slowly coming on him. He couldn't wait until Raziel and Lara got back from their honeymoon so he could get the little wretch off his hands and leave this blasted planet.

The little girl followed him around incessantly, asked constant questions, and utterly refused to leave him alone. Plus his instincts for dodging were being honed to a nice fine perfection, as he had lost count of the number of round objects that had been thrown at him. And it hadn't always been balls, either. Anything remotely round had been considered a ball as far as Rose cared, which meant anything from light bulbs to candles. He stood, sensing the coming of dawn and moved into the guestroom he had taken over for the time being. The bed had been moved to the next room over and in it rested instead a large ornately designed sarcophagus. He shoved the top open, slipped into the lined interior, and let the top slam shut. He closed his eyes and felt sleep drift over his mind and body.

Kain was promptly awoken sometime midday by a knocking on the top of his sarcophagus. He growled low in his throat, annoyed by being woken, but shoved the top off to see what poor fool disturbed his slumber. Standing outside was a little Rose, clutching her favorite stuffed animal, a velociraptor.

"Yes?" he stated icily.

"I had a bad dream." She clutched tightly to her stuffed dinosaur.

Kain sighed deeply wondering what he had done to deserve this, then remembered his tendency of killing people who bothered him. He held the top open for her to climb into. She didn't grin with triumph, though, and he realized that she was telling the truth and she really had woken from a bad dream. Usually she would be enjoying this to no end, but right now she just seemed to take comfort in his closeness.

She snuggled against his chest, and gripped his arm in a tight hug.

"Now go to sleep," he told her. "Nothing is going to get you here," he assured her, seeing her still looking around fearfully. "Besides, I'm far scarier than anything that could come to get you."

She smiled slightly up at him, then snuggled back against his arm. Kain shook his head, wondering why he jumped hoops for the little twerp, and shut the lid again.

Kain woke again quite a while after the sun had set. His eyebrows knit together in confusion as he rose sleepily from the darkness' embrace.

'My arm's asleep,' he thought to himself, lingering traces of rest still keeping a grip of his mind. 'Wait a minute. My arm's dead.' He looked down to see Rose still attached to his arm. He let a sigh out slowly, shoved the lid of the sarcophagus aside and stood. He stretched slightly, getting movement back into his stiff body and headed into the kitchen. Rose still hung on asleep, not in the slightest aware of the world around her. Kain grabbed a bowl down, filled it with cereal and set it on the table. He then poured a glass of milk and waited for Rose to wake up.

After a few more minutes, the little girl yawned and slowly released her grip on Kain, sliding into the chair as she did so. She rubbed her eyes, then eagerly attacked the food that was set out in front of her. Kain walked into the hallway, nodded once to Hillary, and stalked out into the night to go find his own dinner.

The weeks rolled on and finally two months passed. Lara and Raziel came home, only to find the house in shambles. But for their credit, they hadn't expected any different. In fact, as far as both were concerned, the house was in surprisingly good shape for holding both Kain and Rose for any length of time.

Lara glanced at Raziel.

"All right, where do you think they are?"

Raziel shrugged slightly, then stopped and cocked his head to the side, listening intently. He smiled as he heard Rose's laughter from one of the large rooms to the side. He indicated for Lara to follow him quietly. They slipped into the room and stood in the shadows of the column to see Kain tossing Rose up into the air and catching her. Raziel and Lara exchanged a look. It didn't seem that Kain was doing it solely to shut her up; in fact he seemed to be taking as much amusement in it as Rose. Lara stepped out into the light walking toward them, Raziel beside her. Kain noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye, looked down and saw the pair. He quickly caught Rose, held her like she was something utterly disgusting to him, and handed her to Lara.

"Mummy!" Rose hugged her, then asked, "Did you bring me a present?"

Lara laughed as Raziel answered, "Several."

"If you're quite sure you're back now," Kain stated blatantly, "I will be leaving you with this creature of destruction. I will give you fair warning now I am never coming at one of your requests again unless it is clearly and simply stated what it is you want me to do beforehand." Kain headed to the door and Lara and Raziel followed. She heard Rose ask, "Uncle Kain's leaving? Why?"

"Because he has things to do back on Nosgoth, love," Lara explained to her.

"Oh. I want to go to Nosgoth with Uncle Kain."

"When you're older," Lara answered. Hillary walked toward them.

"Ah, Lady Croft, as expected we have a lot of cleaning up to do, and multiple Rose-shaped holes in the walls to repair."

Lara and Raziel both looked at him skeptically a moment, then they realized Kain would throw Rose through the wall. Lara checked Rose over quickly for any scratches or anything, but Rose just squirmed away saying it tickled with a smile on her face.

"However," Hillary continued, "we're going to have to restock the shooting range. Kain took to destroying the targets with lightning bolts to vent his frustration. There's one left, a gift he left to you."

Lara sighed while Raziel smirked, stating, "Better the targets than Rose."

"True."

Outside, Kain gratefully walked away from the mansion, glad to be away from the place finally. He teleported back to the portal and headed back to Nosgoth to see what had happened while he was away.

At eight Rose dropped down from above the door hugged Kain as he walked in. He made a surprised noise and pulled her off, glaring at the little smiling child. Raziel and Lara watched from nearby.

"Have you ever noticed how whenever Kain enters the room, we are completely forgotten?" Lara asked Raziel quietly. "When Kain is here, he's her entire world."

"This can lead to no good," Raziel prophesized darkly.

"You missed my birthday," Rose told Kain as she settled herself onto his shoulders. For all her eight years, she was already speaking like a fourteen-year-old. Her hair had grown out long enough to cover her pointed ears and she kept her hands split into five fingers, a trait which Raziel a few years later had learned. She had finally learned to speak without showing off her fangs and she was finally going to a public school.

"That I did," he responded, offering no apology. "But I was able to come and I brought you a present so don't complain."

She hugged him again. "But I missed you."

Kain merely sighed and shook his head. He pulled her off his shoulders and set her down on the couch. He handed her a small box. She looked up at him for permission to open it which was given with a short nod. She quickly opened it (cheating and using her talons). Inside she found a small metal ball. He took it out of her hands, showed her a slight indention, pushed the fault, and threw it up in the air lightly. She watched it go up and her eyes grew wide a suddenly two inch long spikes shot out of the entirety of the ball. When Kain reached out to catch it, the spikes slid back into the ball. He handed it to her.

"The spikes are pressure-activated and take four seconds to activate. Be careful not to cut your hand up. I doubt your parents would appreciate me for it."

"Thank you." She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek, then grinned and threw the ball at his face.

"Ball!"

"I should have seen that one coming," he sighed. Rose grinned and hugged him.

When Kain left a few hours later, Lara pulled him to the side before he fully escaped.

"I know you'll be going back to Nosgoth for quite a while, so I thought I'd give you this before you go. I don't know if it will effect you the same way they did for Raziel, but it's worth a try, isn't it?" She handed him a carefully wrapped box. He gently opened it, for fear of damaging anything inside of it, and flipped the top open to see a glowing green restoration crystal. He smirked, kissed Lara on the cheek, and thanked her before turning and teleporting back to the Pillars.

Kain was gone for years, and didn't come back until ten years later. For him, ten years meant little and he expected his little Rose to still be there. For Rose, however, ten years was a lifetime, and Kain would find a young woman in the place of the child he left behind . . .


	2. He's American

"ROSE!!"

Rose, who had been leaning back in her computer chair, promptly lost balance and fell over at the sound of her father's bellow. She climbed off the floor, brushed herself off, and headed out, shaking her head. No one could bellow like her father could. She could hear him even all the way out to the training ground.

The eighteen-year-old headed down the steps, skipping every other stair as she headed to the reclining room where she pinpointed her mother's and father's voices. She was forming fully into womanhood, taking after her mother's voluptuousness and her father's elegantly detailed musculature. Her hair had grown down to mid-back and swung with shiny thickness as she quickly jumped down the stairs. She turned round the corner and headed into the room.

"Yes?" she inquired. Lara turned to look at her.

"Rose, you need to stay in the house for a few hours."

Rose groaned, demanding, "Why?"

"Someone's coming that I want you to meet."

Rose sighed deeply, knowing what this meant. Every time Lara told Rose she couldn't leave, it meant Lara wanted her to meet a potential boyfriend/fiancé/whatever. It wasn't so much that it bothered her, really. Lara knew Rose's tastes relatively well. It was more that Rose just really wasn't ready to look for a relationship. So, she nodded to accept her mother's command, went back up to her room, and promptly opened her window and escaped. After she had slipped out the window, she focused her energies and shoved her wings out of her back and flapped them a moment lazily, getting movement back into them. The wings hadn't begun to grow until she had reached puberty, and if she concentrated, she could shape them in and out of her back.

She dropped to the ground, using her wings to slow her drop, then molded them back into her back before escaping down to the town below. She could have taken one of her mother's cars, but knew it'd be too noisy, so a quick jump into the Spectral Realm and five minutes of real time, and she was in town.

For a while the crossbreed just wandered through the city, window-shopping. It was a habit she had picked up from her friends at school. Or, at least, that's whom she blamed. She certainly didn't get it from home.

While she walked through some of the closer portions of the streets, her sharp hearing picked up footsteps coming up behind her. They walked heavy, and she could pick out three pairs. All were male. She turned and looked over to see three teenagers, recent graduates from her school. These three had always given her troubles. Though she wasn't interested in relationships, she had a tendency to flirt. Most people realized she was a typical teenager and that a lot of outgoing females did that. These three didn't have those brains, however.

"Well, well, well," one of them crooned. "And what would you be doing out here on a weekday?"

"Shopping," she responded easily. These boys didn't particularly worry her. After all, even the most well trained football player was no match for her strength. She watched in detachment, hiding amusement as they began to circle her much like sharks. They had absolutely no idea what they were dealing with.

"Shouldn't you be heading to college?"

"I'm going out of the country for it," she responded with a shrug. "Now get out of my way."

The tallest, a male roughly twenty-one with dirty-blonde hair stepped in front of her, blocking her path.

"I don't think so."

"I believe the lady wishes to be left alone," another voice intersected. All four turned to look down the street to see a man walking toward them calmly. He looked perhaps in his late twenties, very pale skin, golden eyes, and extremely long white hair. The boys standing around her straightened up, sensing the intrusion.

"This is none of your concern," was the sharp retort. The man's golden eyes narrowed. In a smooth move, the golden-eyed man lashed forward, slamming a fist into the boy's face. The boy flew back and slammed into the wall. Even a normal human would have heard the snap as his back broke. Hostile feelings suddenly radiated through the area and the two other boys moved forward to attack the man. One grabbed a nearby piece of wood and lashed out at the golden-eyed male. The male merely blocked a few of the strikes, then caught the wood and snapped it in half. He backhanded the youth and sent him sprawling across the street. Wasting no time, he turned to the final boy and red energy collected about his hand. He jammed his hand into the kid's chest and through it. The youth gagged a moment in dying reflex, then the golden-eyed man let the body drop off with a disgusted snort. Rose stared wide-eyed at him. Even with her streak of sadistic cold-heartedness, she had never acted this heartless. Not sparing her a glance, the man strode calmly away from the scene. Sufficiently freaked out, Rose quickly shifted back into the Spectral Realm and headed home. She shifted back out and unfurled her wings once she got back to the mansion's grounds. She quickly did a running take-off, then settled into her window and molded her wings back into her back again. She shook her head, trying to shake off the experience.

She sat down at her computer and turned it on, intending to start up a game and play it for a while, when there was a knock at the door.

"Rose?" It was Raziel's voice and she turned toward it as he opened the door.

"Come down," he continued. "Someone's here to see you."

She sighed. "Another of Mum's potential suitors?"

He chuckled softly and responded, "No. Actually you've met him before."

"I have?" She blinked at him a long moment, confused. Raziel sighed, annoyed.

"Uncle Kain's come to visit."

"Uncle Kain?" Rose repeated again. Raziel shook his head in aggravation and turned away. She quickly stood and followed him. Kain hadn't been to visit since she was eight years old. She watched as Raziel easily vaulted over the railing to land on the first floor. Deciding not to bother with the stairs, she followed him. Lara stood watching the two and shook her head slightly.

"You are going to break the floor, you know."

"Bah." He pulled her against him and gave her a quick kiss. "You don't care."

Rose followed behind her parents as they walked into the reclining room. She looked around carefully as she stepped in, and saw only one person in the room. To her surprise, it was the same man who had stepped into the situation with the three boys. Rose blinked a moment, then muttered to her mother, "I thought that this wasn't another set up attempt." She did have to admit, he was cute. At least her mother was getting a little bit of Rose's taste down.

The man laughed openly, and Rose's heart nearly stopped. There was only one man who could pull off that sadistic, maniacal laugh. He turned golden eyes on her and she recognized the coldness in there. The two studied one another for a long moment.

"You . . . aren't as tall as I remember," Rose finally stated. He raised an eyebrow.

"And you are as tactful as a stone as ever."

Rose sighed deeply. "I forgot how much you loved mocking people, Uncle Kain."

"How could you?" he responded with a chuckle. "It's one of my most endearing qualities."

"I'll bet," she muttered.

Shortly after, Raziel and Kain fell into a conversation about what was currently happening on Nosgoth. Lara, seeing them getting started, quickly excused herself and wordlessly advised Rose to do the same. She took her mother's hint and got out of there before she was trapped. She quickly headed back up to her room, sat down at her computer, and opened up one of her games. She kept herself entertained for a while, then heard a voice outside her window say, "Well? That's it? No hello, no 'Happy to see you, Uncle'?" Rose turned to see Kain outside her window hanging upside down, his long white hair dangling below him.

"I do remember how much you like such pleasantries," she shot back. He smirked.

"Yes, but I expect as much from you. Or have you forgotten how you used to jump on me whenever I walked in the door and hug me?"

Rose blinked at him, eyes wide. "I did what?! To you of all people?"

He nodded sagely. "Of course."

"And you didn't kill me?"

Kain chuckled darkly. "I tried a few times. It came to a head when I wasn't expecting your resilience, and by the time I was aware of its full capabilities, I couldn't bring myself to kill you."

"Aw, how sweet," she muttered sarcastically. "Dad's told me quite a few of your stories. If I got in your way, you'd kill me. Let's face it."

Kain's face went serious and he flipped into her room, landing easily. He walked toward her and leaned down so his eyes were on level with her.

"Do you really think I would have put up with you as a child if I was going to kill you at maturity? That seems to be the one thing people underestimate about me. I do not kill those close to me or who do not betray me."

Rose nearly shot back with a comment about her father, but sensed they were in a very delicate territory. She decided it was probably wise not to make any comment of the sort.

Near them, Rose's phone began to ring. She broke the eye lock with the master vampire and picked it up, placing it to her ear.

"Hello?" She smiled at the voice, recognizing it. "Yeah, hi Jer. Uh, no, I'm not up to anything important. Sure, I'll have to sneak out of the house as usual." She grinned at Kain's narrowed eyes. "Ah, I'll be over in about . . ." she looked at the clock. "Ten to twenty minutes or so. You too. See you in a few."

She hung up the phone, then turned to Kain who had moved away and was staring out the window. When he didn't say anything, she grabbed a coat, though she didn't need it, and ran out the door. She paused, stuck her head back in, and said, "See you later, Uncle Kain. And I am glad you're back for a visit." Then she was gone. He heard the front door slam after a moment more. He calmly teleported down to the recreation room where Raziel was.

"May I inquire who this 'Jer' is?"

"Hm?" He looked up at Kain. "Oh, Jeremy." Raziel made a disgusted snort.

"Jeremy is Rose's boyfriend," Lara explained, coming into the room. She nodded to Raziel. "You can see how much the Soul Reaver likes him."

"What is it about him that you find so distasteful, dare I ask?" Kain inquired.

"He's American," Raziel stated as if that explained it all.


	3. Kain and Jeremy Meet

Rose headed quickly down to one of the pubs to meet up with Jeremy. Her beau was an American working in the Army, and so had been stationed here for the time being. He was the reason Rose wanted to go to the United States for her college years. She walked into the pub and breathed in the stuffy air. Everywhere around she could smell living humans. At times she felt she could almost taste their pulse on her tongue, but she shoved such feelings into the back of her head and ignored them. They were from her vampiric heritage and had no place in her life currently. She headed over to a table near the window where two young men and one woman sat. The male sitting next to the woman had brown hair brushed back, slightly long, and the red-haired woman leaned over to run her fingers playfully through it. The other male's eyes lit up when he saw Rose walking toward them. Jeremy stood to greet her, standing six inches above her five foot ten form. He had black hair that was perpetually mussy and intelligent light blue and gray eyes. He pulled her chair out for her in a gentlemanly manner.

"I see you escaped again," he said with a serious expression, but laughter in his voice.

"Of course. What are they going to do to stop me?" She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek in greetings. He shook his head and smiled, amused by her. The four ordered drinks, Rose getting a glass of water, staunchly avoiding the alcohol. She didn't know if it was something of her vampiric or Soul Reaver heritage, but she never achieved the 'buzzed' feeling of being drunk, and never lost her grip on reality. The only thing that happened was her body began to hurt terribly as it purged the alcohol from her system. So Rose has just decided to cut a corner and avoid drinking all together. Her friends all thought it was because she had been brought up as British aristocracy and she was too snobby to drink beer. She just let them believe it. It made it easier on her when answering questions about it.

After a while of chatting, Jeremy excused himself from the table. Rose spoke softly to the young woman, Katie by name, and kept herself entertained until she heard the pub's door swing open. Normally, she'd ignore it as just another customer, but one of the senses buried deep within her mind went off and she looked up. Standing in the doorway was none other than Kain. Rose barely suppressed the urge to groan.

'This is not going to end well,' she thought to herself darkly. He spotted her and walked toward her, dismissing all the humans around from mind. He glowered down at her, and she in turned stared up at him.

"Rose, it's time to go home," he rumbled gruffly. She blinked in surprise at him, then settled on a rebellious expression.

"No," she responded shortly. "I'm having fun and it's not like I have to be home at some certain time. I'm not a child anymore."

Kain leaned down toward her, bringing his face dangerously close to hers and hissed, "Oh, yes you are still a child. Especially in consideration to your father and myself. You will obey your elders or else."

"Or else what?" she shot back. He bared his fangs and looked like he was about to respond when he felt a tapping on his shoulder. He turned and glanced down at a young boy with brown hair.

"Hey," Jeremy intersected. "Leave her alone. She doesn't want to go."

Rose dropped her face into her hands as Kain growled, "Stay out of this, boy. This is not your concern."

"Of course it's my concern," Jeremy retorted. "She's my girlfriend, and I certainly won't let her get pushed around by you."

"Jeremy," Rose pleaded. She went unnoticed as Kain and Jeremy glared at one another eye to eye. Kain shook his head abruptly, deciding it was just not worth the effort and turned back to Rose. Jeremy grabbed Kain's shoulder and pulled him back up to face him, and Rose groaned, knowing that as far as Kain was concerned, Jeremy's fate was sealed.

"Don't turn your back on me," Jeremy hissed.

"Don't turn your back on me, **_boy_**," Kain retorted in a dangerously low voice. Any vampire or human on Nosgoth would have turned tail and run. Jeremy, however, had been insulted and his girlfriend all but threatened, and that was a challenge that could not be unanswered. He pulled back an arm and punched Kain.

Jeremy was well built and after a few years in the Army, his punches were not the weapons of simple mindless brawls. He could send most people, especially if they weren't prepared, rolling head over heels backwards. A part of his mind that was still rational and calm realized he was screwed when his fist connected with what felt like solid metal under the skin. Kain hissed lightly and cracked his knuckles once.

"My turn."

His retributive strike sent Jeremy slamming into the bar. The wood broke underneath the American's weight and he let out a cry of pain. He shoved himself up, gritted his teeth against the pain, and moved forward to try to retaliate. Kain caught him with a casual backhanded strike, and the rest of the people in the pub knew the fight had been over before it had started. Blood crept out of Jeremy's lips as he slammed up against the wall, shelves and bottles falling to the ground and shattering about him. Kain took a step toward him, fully intending to finish the kill, when he heard a very familiar 'click' next to his head. He turned slightly and gazed out of the corner of his eye down the barrel of a rocket launcher. Rose glared at him.

"Get out. Now."

Kain met her gaze a moment, weighing her conviction, then turned and walked out. He didn't feel particularly like getting shot in the head with a rocket, and while he'd probably survive, it'd worry a lot of people if he showed up walking down the street two days later. Rose dropped the gun, a gift from her mother, and ran over to Jeremy, carefully looking him over.

"Who . . ." Jeremy coughed a little blood. Rose could sense a few bruised ribs. Kain must have been in a good mood if that was the only damage that had been done to him. Suddenly, one of the guys standing near the door shouted, "Dude! Come look what he's doing to your car!"

Rose helped him stand and both went to the window. Rose watched in utter shock and surprise as Kain stalked up to the jeep that Jeremy drove, jammed his clawed fingers into it, and picked it up. He flipped the car, slammed it into the ground once, then sent it spinning away down the street. He breathed in deeply, as if he had just gotten something off his mind, and walked away calmly from the scene as people collected. Jeremy turned to her, and she saw the horrified expression in his eyes.

"Who was that?"

Rose bit her lip and she nodded for someone to call an ambulance. She released a breath as she answered him, "He's my uncle."

"Uncle?" he repeated blearily. "You're related to that _monster_?"

"Well, sort of—"

He shoved her hand off of him. "Get away from me," he managed through his lips. "I don't ever want to see you again if that's what your family's like."

Rose stared at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, then Jeremy quickly added a broken jaw to his list of problems as Rose punched him in the face and stormed out of the pub. A few of the women nodded slightly as she walked out. They knew what it was like to be dumped because of family. Rose headed home and slammed the doors open where they made a muffled explosion. Raziel and Lara, who were in the kitchen, turned slightly, listening to their daughter storm up the stairs and slam her room door shut. Both turned accusingly to the other male in the room. Kain looked at them blankly.

"What did you do to her?" Raziel growled. Kain shrugged simply.

"Rose's 'boyfriend' challenged me."

Raziel's eyes narrowed and Lara slowly began to reach for one of her weapons.

"Did you kill him?" Lara demanded.

"No." Kain shook his head. "Rose stopped me before I could."

Lara and Raziel exchanged a look in which they spoke to each other in perfect silence. Kain abruptly found himself looking at the Soul Reaver unsheathed and the barrel of a Desert Eagle.

"I suppose you want me to go apologize," he stated with a sigh. As one, Raziel and Lara nodded.

"No," he told them simply and teleported away. Lara let out an exasperated noise as Raziel clenched his claws angrily.

Midnight. The chimes of the grandfather clock in the hall went off, their chord spreading through the still air into the room Rose sat in. She was curled up in the corner of the couch, wrapped up in a blanket. During the time she had gone to school, she had been forced to sleep during the night. Now that she was out of school, she has slipped back into her favored sleeping habits. She blinked slowly, staring uninterestedly at the fire as it crackled and ate the wood feeding it. After a time, she became aware of another presence near her. She looked up and found Kain staring into the fire as well. He didn't move for a few minutes, then he turned and looked down at her. He reached into a pocket and held out a small box to her. She took it and opened it, recognizing the ring Jeremy had given her. She looked up at him curiously.

"It looked like it had been yours and you might have had some attachment to it," he stated simply.

"In other words," Rose summed up, "it fell out of the jeep as you were swinging it around."

Kain just nodded once. Rose stared down at the ring for a long moment, then pulled back her arm and threw it into the fire. Kain applauded her quietly. She sighed.

"Thank you."

Kain looked down at her, surprised. He smirked slightly as he commented, "And here I was, thinking you'd be silly and expect me to apologize. All the same, what are you thanking me for?"

"For showing me what an _asshole_ he was," she snarled vindictively. He chuckled slightly and sat down next to her, both of the watching the fire. After a time, she let her head fall against his shoulder. He blinked down at her a moment, deciding whether he was going to shove her off or not. After a moment longer, he simply placed an arm loosely around her shoulders.

"My Uncle."

"My little twerp."

"Hey. Stop being mean."

"It's what I do," he responded.


	4. The Mall and Kain's Protectiveness of Ro...

Late afternoon of the next day saw the four, Raziel, Lara, Rose, and Kain, all walking through the mall. Raziel and Kain looked at all the people around with identical looks of, 'So many humans, so little time.' Rose was busy window-shopping, and had quickly abandoned her parents and uncle, and Lara walked slowly along, patiently keeping stride with Raziel. As often as he came here, he never got over his initial reactions of so many humans all freely doing business without any fear of vampires. He found it an excellent playground.

Rose walked calmly out of one of her favorite stores to hear a voice state behind her, "Hello." She turned curiously to see one of the mall police walking up behind her.

"Hello," she responded cautiously. "What can I do for you?"

He smirked darkly. "There are a few things you can do to me," he responded, blatantly looking her up and down. Rose sighed irritably.

'Why do I always attract me like this?!' she demanded of herself silently. 'I may still be a virgin, but I am definitely not a woman who's easily pushed over and bedded.'

"Thank you," she forced out between gritted teeth, "for the invitation, but I'd rather not."

She turned and walked down the mall, but heard his footsteps behind her. He pulled up next to her.

"Now, you don't need to go so quickly," he cooed. Rose snarled inwardly.

"Look," she turned to him and glanced at his name tag, "Hubert—"

"I didn't know we were on a first name basis," he interrupted.

A sudden hand grabbed the cop's arm and jerked him back, away from Rose. Hubert found himself looking at a pale white face of a young man, and angry, narrowed golden eyes that had to be contacts.

"You will leave her alone," Kain growled. The cop pulled his arm out of Kain's grasp.

"Stay out of this, pretty boy," Hubert retorted before turning back to Rose. Kain growled and grabbed the cop, twisting him around. The policeman moved with the twist, a fist clenched, and punched Kain. The vampire, slightly surprised by the human whelp's audacity, backed up a step. Hubert turned back to Rose, and Rose watched as red lightning began to crackle across Kain's body. His form grew a foot taller, his golden eyes shifted to a cat yellow, and his skin took on a yellow-green tinge. His clawed fingers melted together into three long talons. He tapped the cop's shoulder lightly, and it felt almost like a punch to the human. He winced and turned to see Kain leaning down, his face inches away from his, fangs bared. Hubert's eyes widened and in a millisecond, some long dormant instinct told him that this _thing_ was a danger to humanity and had to restrain and confine it away from people as soon as possible. Unaware of what he was doing, he grabbed the can of Mace on his belt and sprayed in into Kain's face. Kain let out a roar of pain and pulled back, claws going to his face. Rose rushed to his side immediately, and gasped as she saw steam rising from his skin. Rose turned a deadly glare on the cop and hissed, exposing her fangs, having remembered one of the largest ingredients in Mace was: _water_.

Kain shoved her away from him, snarling, "He's **_mine_**." The skin where the Mace had hit was red and looked infected. Kain's claws curled in on themselves and launched forward, connecting with the cop's torso and sending him up into the second level of a three-story mall. Kain lunged up after him and Rose glanced around, then ran toward her parents. Raziel noticed the danger immediately and quickly climbed up after him. Kain pulled his claws back to rip out the mortal's heart as Hubert recovered, when his claws were suddenly stopped. He turned accusingly on Raziel who held his arm.

"What are you doing?" Raziel demanded.

"This pathetic wretch of a mortal challenged me, sprayed water in my face, and was propositioning your daughter."

Raziel blinked at him a moment, then the policeman also found a blue-skinned, white-eyed being baring down on him, wielding some kind of energy blade. The human wisely screamed and ran. The very angry Soul Reaver and master vampire followed.

Rose turned to her mother and asked, "As much as I love them, don't you think at times I'm a little overprotected?"

"That may be so," Lara agreed, "but they were both raised in a world where killing was necessary to survive, and they've both now been confined to a world that frowns on such behavior. This way they vent some of their frustrations with the world." She glanced at Rose out of the corner of her eye as she added, "Plus, you are very important to both of them."

Rose blinked at her blankly and Lara smiled secretively. Rose had never been told about her ability to breed vampires. The trio had decided at the wedding Rose hadn't needed to know until the proper time. Lara knew Rose even privately thought she was sterile. It worried her slightly that Rose would one day sleep with someone without protection and become pregnant, but so far Rose hadn't shown any interest in long-lasting relationships, and Lara knew Rose didn't want to sleep with anyone unless it was a long-time thing. So she didn't worry about telling her daughter for the time being.

In the meantime, Raziel and Kain had cornered and beaten the mortal within an inch of his life. To finish it all off, Kain lifted him by the throat and dropped him down to the first floor. He landed in a fountain with a resounding splash. Rose and Lara walked over to where he fell.

From above, Kain shouted down, "Is he still alive?"

Rose watched the human start to crawl out of the fountain.

"Yes," she called back. Kain walked away from the railing, then came back with a hotdog stand. He dropped it into the fountain and on top of the policeman. Rose heard him groan and pass out, but he was still breathing.

"Is he dead now?"

"Still alive."

Kain snapped his talons. "I'm loosing my touch."

Suddenly, there was a lot of shouting and running as police came in and quickly surrounded Raziel and Kain, weapons drawn. Lara grabbed Rose's arm and led her out of the mall. Raziel and Kain, wisely deciding that in this situation, discretion was the better part of valor, jumped over the railing and landed below, running full-speed out of the doors toward Lara's car. Lara and Rose had climbed into it already and watched as Raziel slid into the passenger seat, Kain into the back with Rose. Lara slammed down on the gas pedal, streaking away before anyone could get the license plate number.

"Challenged by two mortal humans in as many days," Kain growled. "What is wrong with this world?!"

Rose laughed loudly and kissed him on the cheek in thanks for defending her honor. She knew it wasn't something he did very often.

Later that afternoon, Rose crept down toward the guest bedroom Kain was in, a malicious smile on her face. She was bored and feeling particularly mischievous. She sneaked into the room and knocked on the top of the sarcophagus. There was a slight growl from within, then the lid was shoved aside. Kain fixed her with a steely glare.

"Yes?"

"I had a bad dream," she stated while grinning impishly. Kain blinked at her, an eyebrow raised. He had long ago shifted back to his younger form.

"So?"

Well fine." Her joke lost, she crossed her arms over her chest and turned to walk away. "Last time I try to mock something I did when I was little."

As she moved to walk away, Kain lunged up, grabbed the back of her shirt, and pulled her into the sarcophagus. He slammed the lid shut, wrapped a loose arm around her, and pointed at her, saying, "Now, go to sleep." He shut his eyes and slipped into rest. Rose blinked at him in surprise a moment, then smiled slightly. He had changed a lot since she had last seen him, and not for the worse. She couldn't deny the fact that he was quite handsome, and she had known him since she was little . . .

'No, no, no.' She shook her head. 'He's my _uncle_, for God's sake.' Yet, in actuality, she didn't have any idea how exactly he was her uncle. She just knew that's what she had grown up calling him.

'But think about it,' another part of her mind whispered to her. 'He is everything you could want. And you've loved him every since you first met him.'

She quickly jammed the thought to the back of her head. She was going to be leaving England for the United States in four days, and he was probably going to go back to Nosgoth. She knew he certainly wouldn't want to come with her to the U.S. She sighed slightly and snuggled against his chest, forcing herself to slip back into sleep.

Rose woke late in the evening as normal and sat up to stretch. Or, started to, anyway. Before she had even gotten halfway up, she smacked her head into something hard. She looked around and found herself currently lying on top of Kain, her legs straddling his lower stomach, and her head had hit the lid of the sarcophagus. She leaned down and rubbed her head muttering, "I forgot."

She looked down at the vampire beneath her for a long moment. She would have to ask her father how he was related to them. It bothered her that she didn't know.

She shoved the lid off to the side quietly as not to wake him, then paused to look back at him before climbing out. Abandoning all thoughts of morality, she leaned down and kissed him lightly before climbing out and shutting the lid again. She quickly headed out of the room and shut the door.

From within the sarcophagus, Kain smirked slightly.


	5. Rose's Problems with Thorns

Becca is kinda mine as well, but also belongs to Syvia, who she is modeled after. No touchy!

SVP, please, please, please email me if you can at DragonSeer85@hotmail.com I need to talk to you!

Raziel glanced down across the morning's paper listlessly. Possible declarations of war, treaties with foreign governments, humans facing some crisis or another. With no offense meant toward those said humans, it was all so dreary. What ever happened to fears of demon-possession, and the explosive powers of mages? Where were the supernaturals to cull the human herd? The humans of this world had grown lazy, dull, and ignorant. There was no spice to their lives. He sighed and set the paper to the side and glanced at his daughter, who sat next to him at the table, currently stuffing breakfast into her mouth. He shook his head slightly. Teenagers.

The door opened abruptly. He looked up to see Kain walk through, heading out toward the main doors. As he walked out of the room, he tossed back the comment, "If you'll excuse me, but I believe I'm going to rid this crooked little world of another of its unsavory parasites."

Raziel glared after the master vampire long after the doors had shut. He let out a breath in a growl, muttering to himself, "I am beyond ecstatic over the fact that he is truly not related to me."

From next to him, Rose looked up suddenly. "He's not related to us?"

Raziel shook his head emphatically, then paused and cocked it to the side, considering. "Well, no, he's in no way blood related to us. He was my creator when I was still a vampire, so I suppose if I was still a vampire, you'd share some of your blood with his, but since I was a Soul Reaver when you were conceived . . ." he shrugged. "Your mother would have had you call him 'Grandfather Kain,' but both Kain and I vetoed it. So, he became 'Uncle Kain'."

Rose sat there blinking a moment, then a malicious grin spread across her features. Raziel watched the transformation with a raised, confused eyebrow. Rose quickly suppressed the smile and finished eating, then started to excuse herself as Lara walked in. Her mother looked up at her.

"Where are you headed off to today?" she inquired curiously. Rose grinned.

"I'm going shopping for American styles of clothes so I somewhat fit in when I get there."

Lara blinked at her daughter a minute before telling her, "You do realize American fashion changes with the shifts in the wind."

Rose stared up at her mother innocently, saying, "No, does it really?"

"In other words," Raziel cut in, "you're using this as an excuse to buy more things?"

"I'm allowed to," she responded, pouting.

Lara just shook her head and told Rose, "If you're going to go, please take Uncle Kain with you. That way he can keep an eye on you."

Rose rolled her eyes as she headed out of the room, throwing over her shoulder, "Again with the overprotection."

"You're going to be out of our protection for a whole year before we see you again," Raziel shot back as the door shut. "I _hate_ it when she does that. She reminds me so much of Kain's constant desire to get the last word in." He paused, then turned to Lara. "Speaking of which, she did something rather bizarre before you came in here. I told her Kain wasn't actually related to us, and her face broke out into a smile."

Lara's eyes had widened as he related it to her, and she let her face drop into her hands. "You didn't tell her that, did you, Raziel?"

"Why shouldn't I have?"

Lara blinked at him a moment before thinking to herself, 'Typical male.'

"Well, nothing's wrong with it," she finally responded. She would shove the worries to the back of her head until it was necessary for her to think about them. And she wouldn't tell Raziel of them. After all, if he thought for an instant that Kain and Rose might become involved . . . Raziel would be less than pleased, to put it as delicately and understated as possible.

In the meantime, Rose had gathered all the things up that she needed and headed out the front door. She noticed Kain walking up the driveway, his skin flush and obviously warm. She jogged down to him, grabbed one of his arms, and started dragging him toward the garage.

"Come on, you're coming with me."

He looked down at her and watched in amusement as he held himself still so as far as she was concerned, she was tugging a living—or unliving—statue. She grrred at him, then threw everything in for a last ditch tug. To Kain's surprise, he actually had to step toward her a couple steps to keep from falling over. She took that as her opportunity and dragged him to her car. He allowed himself to be shoved into the passenger seat and was grinning openly as Rose slid into the driver's seat, panting.

"Where are we going?" he asked idly.

"Shopping."

One of his eyes twitched and he turned to her slowly. "I'm sorry? I don't believe I heard you correctly. I could have sworn you just said you were about to take a master vampire and ruler of all of Nosgoth to go _shopping_ with you."

"I am," Rose responded as she started up the engine, listening to the machine purr as it started into life. Kain turned away.

"I am getting out now."

"No you're not," she shot back. She thought about locking the doors, but realized that would only piss him off more, and would make him completely unreasonable, so instead she said, "Mother wanted you to go with me to keep an eye on me."

He paused mid-movement, obviously considering it. After a moment, he sat back against the leather chair again.

"All right. But only for a few hours. None of this four, five hour female business."

"Wouldn't have dreamed of dragging you along on one of those shopping sprees," she responded. "I'd be too afraid that by that time you'd be eating the customers."

He gave her a deadly glare, but she just ignored it, inciting him to begin to plot malevolent things to instruct her on her proper place in life. After about five minutes, he threw the whole idea out the door, as he remembered Rose had _never_ paid any attention that those lessons as a child, and probably would be even more resistant to them now.

It was a quiet ride to the mall, and slightly longer than usual, as she decided it would be better to go to the _other_ mall, rather than the one they had been at the day before. Once they got there, she glanced around the parking lot, and managed to find herself a nice little space at the front of the lane within comfortable walking distance. Rose shook her head at herself disgustedly. She was just as a lazy as the humans on this planet. Ah well, growing up in a place like this impressed bad habits on the youth. That, and going to school. One could pick up so many bizarre things from school.

Kain followed her patiently as she moved quickly through the store, picking out what she wanted. He did have to give her credit to the fact that she didn't take more time than was necessary, and once she had made a decision, she stuck to it. After about only half an hour, she had collected the clothes she had decided on, and gone into the changing room. Each room was it's own little private section, so Kain easily slid into a seat outside the door of the one she had gone into.

"Why are you going to America?" he asked.

"Well, it had originally been because Jeremy was nearly finished with his service, and he was going to come join me." The walls muffled her voice, but he heard it clearly. "Now it's because I'm signed up and accepted, and I would like to see what the U.S. is like."

She opened the door and cautiously stepped out, her cheeks developing a rather light cherry color.

"Well? What do you think?"

Rose was dressed in a top that had a V-cut neck and cut off at midriff. It was a dark red-maroon, and to accent it, she wore a mid-thigh black skirt. She was pleased to see Kain's mouth drop slightly, but it caused her blush to deepen. He nodded once as he quickly snapped his mouth shut.

"It looks good."

"Just good?" she responded, and a giggle actually made its way through her lips. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth, and her faded blush came back full strength. She retreated into the changing room with Kain's laughter following her. She quickly changed, berating herself for letting such a . . . a _girly_ sound come out of _her_ mouth, then headed out and purchased her items.

On the way home, she inquired, "Will you be going back to Nosgoth when I leave after the next couple days?"

"Perhaps," he replied vaguely. "Perhaps I'll stay for a while. Depends on my mood when that day comes."

She was silent for a while, then glanced at him. "How long will it be before you come back?"

"I don't know. It will probably be a while before I come back from Nosgoth. Five, perhaps six years. Maybe more, but I doubt less."

"Oh." Rose grew quiet, saddened by the fact he would be leaving that soon. "I'll miss you."

He smirked. "No you won't." At her horrified expression, he laughed. "Trust me, Rose, by four to five years, you will probably be so sick of any mention of me, you'll wish it will be longer."

"How could you say that?!"

He chuckled. "Just wait and see, my little Rose. Just wait and see."

The next couple of days sped by relatively quickly. Rose didn't get to spend as much time with Kain as she would have liked, as she had to finish the rest of her shopping without male annoyed influence, and she had to pack. It was during the day of her scheduled plane trip that her rest was interrupted by a nightmare. She wasn't scheduled to leave until eleven o'clock that night, and a dream consisting of glowing green eyes and a haunting laugh hounded her in her dream.

"There is no escaping destiny," the voice told her soothingly. "You are as bound to us, the Pillars, and Nosgoth as you are to your precious little planet. You will come home, Rose."

Rose sat up abruptly in the dark of her room. She glanced toward her window where her thick black curtains blocked out any and all traces of the sun. She wrapped a blanket around her body and walked down the stairs, knowing trying to fall asleep would be an exercise in futility. Should she actually manage to fall asleep, she somehow knew the dream would hunt her out again. She found herself standing in front of the door to the guestroom Kain was using. She hesitated before it.

'Should I really bother him with this?' she thought to herself, unsure of what to do. 'It's only a dream, after all, and I'm a big girl now.' She bit her lower lip, knowing she wanted to be assured it was a dream and only that, but her pride wouldn't let her ask for comfort. She was about to turn away when the door opened. Kain stood behind, looking down at her.

"Your thoughts are as loud and as obnoxious as you are. What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She turned to move away, but he touched her shoulder gently.

"Rose, what is it?"

"Bad dream," she responded quietly. He sighed slightly, but pulled her into the room, shut the door, and embraced her, letting her lean against his chest. After a moment, he easily picked her up, settled into his sarcophagus, and let her curl up against him. He closed the lid quietly, and let an arm wrap lightly around her, giving her the comfort she wanted. She felt immediately better in his arms. She watched him close his eyes and fall asleep. She snuggled against his chest a moment, then moved to look down at him. This was going to be the last time that she'd see him for at least half a decade. It seemed like she met up with him only to be separated from him. Gathering her nerve, she leaned down and kissed him. To her surprise, she found a response from his lips. She jerked back, and promptly smacked her head against the top of the sarcophagus. Forgetting her surprise, she placed her head back against his chest again, hands on the back of her head, moaning, "Ow." She felt Kain's chest moved as he chuckled. She looked up at him.

"I thought you were asleep."

He smirked. "Do you really think I fall asleep that quickly, Rose? I'd be a dead man if I did. I was actually awake when you kissed me the first time the other day."

"You were—" she stuttered, looking for words to describe her outrage. Finally, she settled on asking, "Why were you awake?"

"That was actually your fault. I woke when you hit your head on the sarcophagus."

At the reminder, her head started hurting again. She rubbed it. Suddenly, she found his hands on either side of her face, and he gently kissed her again. Too surprised, she didn't respond for a moment.

"Ah, Rose." He gently poked her nose. "You are beyond words at times."

She blinked down at him, breathing in the familiar sent, studying the eyes she had grown up loving, and was struck with the same sadness he was going. Shoving all thoughts of consequences to the back of her head, she pressed her lips to his again. She felt his hands slip around her back, pulling her against him. With quick, deft movements, he undressed her, allowing her lips to fasten hungrily against his. He noted the hesitance, though, in her movements, the way she moved as if unpracticed. He pulled back and looked at her a moment.

"You haven't done this before, have you?" he asked quietly. She blushed slightly, looked away, and shook her head. He smiled and pulled her against him, craning her face up to his.

'I'm flattered, then, my little Rose. I promise you I'll be as gentle as I can, if you are still interested in doing this. Are you?"

She nodded after a moment, and he kissed her again.

"I have to go now," she whispered to Kain a few hours later. The two stood slightly to the side, waiting for the time to go. Kain smirked and touched her cheek as she looked sadly up at him.

"Remember what I said. You _will_ be sick of me."

She shook her head emphatically. "No, especially not after that."

"We'll see. Now get out of here and go."

She kissed him once more, then headed out the door. Kain watched her, a small smile on his face, then shook his head to rid it as if he was just coming back to his senses. What in hell was he doing with this girl?!

Another mind wondered the same thing on the other side of the hall. Standing in the shadows watching, Lara stood and cursed silently. Now she had to go make sure Raziel didn't find out about this.

Rose finally got into the United States, specifically Massachusetts. She quickly located an apartment quiet and far enough away so that no one would ask about any odd comings or goings, but close enough to the college to comfortably walk. In her spare time, she went and picked up a class list to re-familiarize herself with it. School started the day after, and she wanted to know where everything was.

All her classes were as they should be, and she quickly found the rooms for all of them. The only thing that seemed funny was her English class didn't list a teacher. All it said was 'pending.' With a shrug, she went home, forced herself to sleep during the night, and got up at eight to head to classes. Mostly it was just introductions, though she did get a few easy things to do for homework. Right before lunch, she finally came to her English class. She glanced around cautiously. All day the male members of the species had given her looks, and many had been interested by her British accent.

The English class was relatively full, so she took a seat in the back next to another young woman. Rose glanced at her. She had chocolate brown hair that fell to her shoulders and when she glanced at Rose, the crossbreed noticed she had gray-green eyes.

"Hey," she greeted Rose. "New here?"

"Yeah," Rose responded. "First time in the U.S. Do you know who the teacher is?"

The woman looked surprised at her accent, before responding, "No, I don't." She extended a hand. "Rebecca. You can call me Becca or Becky if you like."

Rose took her hand and shook it. "Rose. Pleasure to meet you."

"You too."

The door suddenly opened and the class looked up as a young man walked in. He had long white hair, was dressed in an impeccably clean three-piece suit, and small, fashionable rectangular glasses perched on his nose. His golden eyes took in everyone dispassionately.

"UNCLE KAIN?!" Rose yelped in surprise. He glanced up at her, nodded once, then turned back to the class.

"I am going to be your professor for the year," Kain began. "I like to think of myself as fair, but I am hard and ruthless. You will have to work hard to get a good grade in the class, and I will expect you to work honestly. Believe me," he looked over the edge of his glasses, "I will know if you cheat. And you don't want to know to what happens to those who cheat."

Rose let her head slip down to the table, her hands over her head, and Becca looking at her curiously as she whimpered.

_"My uncle is my English teacher!!"_


	6. Essays and Shared Brains

Again, Becca is based off Syvia, Kairan is VladimirsAngel, and Diana is Bloodthirsty. Have fun seeing them interact with Rose. ;P Oh, review response page next chapter.

And for Heaven's sake, people, KAIN AND ROSE ARE NOT BLOOD RELATED!!! It says on the genre it's a romance. Don't like it, too bad! The story goes as I want it to go. So I'm sorry if you're weirded out that it's her uncle, but vampires do not have the same morals! Keep that in mind while you read! If a sire and child can sleep together- which they do, and often (and that's effectively a father-daughter sleeping together), then a non-related uncle and niece who are vampires definitely can. So GET OVER IT! I'm tired of listening to complaints about it. Sheesh.

Kain sat at the desk and set his fingers into a steeple.

"First of all, there will be no textbooks in this class. What we write on you will be able to get off the Internet or from your friends. We will be writing essays solidly, and the topics will be of _my _choosing. There will be ten papers that we do throughout the semester and they will be of varying length, which will be told to you when I give the assignment. These will be one third of your final grade. The second third is attendance. Unlike other teachers, I expect you to be here, and I expect you to seek to learn. If you don't want to be here, then get out of my class. As for the final third, it's made up of speaking, interaction in class, and tests— and yes, that does include the final."

There was a bit of muted cheering from the class at that. It would mean that the final in this class didn't make up so much of the grades and they wouldn't have to fully stress out about it.

One of the students in the corner raised his hand as an indication for Kain's attention and stated plainly, "Uh, Mr. Kain? I'm quite confused by the set-up."

Kain raised an eyebrow and commented simply, "Get out. It seems to me the set-up is rather easy to understand, and if you don't, then get out of my class and stop taking up these obviously brighter people's time with silly questions such as those." He looked at the students, fixing each with a pointed glare for a moment. "Rest assured, I do not care who you are, or who your parents or friends are. It makes absolutely no difference to me. You will work if you are in my class and you will earn my respect. In return, I will begin to respect you as well. An even trade-off, so to speak. And if you have any problems with my teachings, I will take you out after class and beat you into a bloody pulp."

He grinned widely and the other students chuckled, but Rose winced to herself. She knew he wasn't kidding, and he would take them up on that threat.

"Now," Kain continued. "You all have a paper due next Wednesday and it should be five pages long. Your topic is vampires. I want you to make notes and research information on their behaviors, myths, legends, weakness and strengths. I want you to look into creatures like Dracula and Nosferatu. For God's sake, though, do not tell me their story. If you feel so inclined to, only summarize it and get on with the piece."

He looked pointedly at the class as each person quickly wrote notes. The bell rang as an indication that set of classes was over. Kain waved a hand at them.

"Now, I don't want to see you until next Wednesday. Shoo."

Students quickly piled out of the room, already whispering about the strange new teacher. Becca turned to Rose.

"Hey, would you like to meet a few old friends of mine?"

"Uh, sure. Could you give me a few minutes? I need to talk to my uncle."

"All right. I'll be outside."

Becca followed the students out of the room and Rose immediately pounced on Kain demanding, "What in hell are you doing teaching?!"

"I told you that you would be sick of me," he grinned.

"Yes, but that doesn't explain why you are standing there and teaching an English class! Do you even have any credentials?"

Kain chuckled darkly. "Well, it seems the dean and the board found me _'fitting'_ for the job. They certainly didn't express any disagreements."

Rose blinked at him a long moment. "You charmed them, didn't you?"

"Of course."

"And why the topic of vampires?" Rose inquired. "I would think you would know everything about such creatures."

"Ah, it's absolutely wonderful. I'm having my students look up these creatures for me. I want to know what to expect should I run into any of this world's vampires."

"Are you really even sure we have vampires?" Rose shot back. "I certainly haven't seen any in my life except you."

"True," Kain mused, "but that would not explain why so many of the legends and weaknesses are all similar to our world's vampires. How could there be so much that's similar without there being a common kernel of truth?"

"I suppose. Every myth has to have a seed of truth to start, right?"

"That is does. Ah yes, on another topic, since your father no longer can protect you, he asked me to come and told me to give you a message." He promptly tipped his head back and let out the malicious laugh that only he could do. Rose groaned deeply and clenched her fingers in front of her.

"When I get my hands on my father again . . ."Abruptly deciding something, she dropped them, blinked at Kain, and told him, "Well, I'm still not going to be sick of you."

In a swift move, he grabbed her and pulled her up against him, kissing her lightly. "Yes, you will be." He gave her a shove toward the door. "Now get out of here. I have other classes to plan for."

"Grr." She walked out the door and met up with Becca. Becca led her down through the halls toward the cafeteria. It was lunchtime.

After buying their respective lunches, Becca led her to a table where two other girls sat. Both looked up, smiled to the human girl, then looked curiously at the crossbreed as Becca waved a hand toward them. One of the girls had shoulder-length brown hair and looked up at her with curious tie-die eyes. She wore black, but it was in fashion, with denim pants Rose had never seen the style of before, and a short sleeved black blouse. The girl next to her was built much like Rose was from the training her mother and father put her through. She had long, flowing copper-gold hair that fell to her waist, was pale enough to give Rose a run for her money, and had inquisitive fey green eyes. Around her neck was a thick silver torque.

"This," Becca began, indicating the black-clothed girl, "is Diana, and she," she added, pointed to the copper haired woman, "is Kairan. Ladies, this is Rose. Not only is she from out of town, but country. Rose's from England."

"Diana Rinace," Diana clarified.

"Kairan Kincaid," Kairan added. Rose smiled slightly.

"Rose Croft."

At the name, the three girl's eyes grew wide. "Croft as in Lara Croft? Tomb Raider?"

Rose blinked. "I didn't know my mum was so well-heard of here."

"Are you kidding?" Diana chuckled. "Your mother has a kind of cult following among the girls here. We're all fascinated by her work. So you're actually her daughter?"

"Mm-hm."

Suddenly, Rose's head perked up and she turned slightly away, looking at something to the far right. The three girls exchanged a look saying, 'Wow. She's about as strange as we are.' They followed her gaze and saw she was staring at another table where the 'preps' of the school were sitting. Rose's eyes narrowed as she heard them talking about how cute the new English teacher was. She shook her head, then turned back to the girls.

"Sorry," she apologized. "Sometimes strange things catch my interest."

"Don't worry about them," Becca responded. "They're the harpies . . . just like a high-school "in crowd," but I doubt they'll be angry at you for long."

"Angry at me?" Rose inquired, blinking. "I didn't know they were. I just heard them speaking of the teachers."

Kairan chuckled softly. "You don't know then? They're all mad at you because you've had the entire population of males staring at you all day. They do that whenever a new female with legs and breasts comes to the school. It's just the way it is. They'll get over it, as well." Kairan had the kind of look that told Rose, 'Believe me, I've been there.' Rose smiled and found herself liking these three girls. They were outsiders among their own kind, but were intelligent and amusing and . . . mortal. There was really no other way for her to explain it.

"Please sit down," Diana invited her. "There's another friend of ours who's not here yet. She's still on vacation, as her class doesn't start until next week, so you'll meet her then."

"How did you all meet?" Rose asked, settling down between Kairan and Becca. The three shared another look and smiled at the memories.

"Actually, we were old school buddies. And we decided we were going to stick close to each other when we went to college. What about you? Why did you come to America for college?"

Rose shrugged slightly. "I had wanted to see what the American system of school was like, and I wanted to go to college somewhere away from my parents. Don't get me wrong, I love them, but I did really want some time away from them."

"Amen," the three agreed simultaneously. Rose cocked her head to the side, considering.

"Are you sure you three don't all share a brain?"

This question brought them to glancing at each other, then Becca smirked and shook her head.

"Nah. I wouldn't want to be part of _that_ pervert's brain," she commented, indicating Kairan.

"Now wait a minute," the other retorted. "_I'm_ the pervert?! Who was it who came up with the idea that one summer to—"

"We're not gonna talk about that," Becca hastily cut in. Rose blinked in confusion and noticed the same look on Diana's face. Diana shrugged and smiled toward Rose sympathetically.

"I wasn't there, so I don't know what they're talking about either." Rose laughed in response.

Several days later, Rose sat in the English room with Kain, helping him grade papers. She didn't particularly want to do it, but he didn't take 'no' very well, so here she was. It was still early in the morning before her class. She had dropped the class she had been taking before Kain's, allowing her to sleep in until eleven.

She squinted at the paper before her, then handed it toward Kain.

"I'll bite. Can you read what it says?"

Kain leaned over and narrowed his eyes, snarling slightly at the bright pink pen writing. " 'Frankenstein was a sane and really smart man who tried to beat nature at her own game,' " Kain read off, deciphering the loopy script, "with hearts on the I's."

Rose winced and held it away from her body with a finger and thumb. "Can I burn it now?"

"No," he chuckled. She suddenly found herself out of her seat, sitting on the table, with Kain standing in front of her, looking down at her. He took the paper out of her hands and set it to the side, then kissed her. She felt herself respond and melt up against him. Rose knew Kain had developed a cult following, a collection of women (in other words, most of the school), who would do anything to get him into their beds. She also knew, though, that people were taking notice of how much time she spent with him, and half of them seemed to forget that she called him uncle. She knew that there were the beginnings of whispers in dark corners that the two were sleeping together, and she knew she was going to have to find a way to combat that soon. If anyone were to ever look into her family, the combined effect of her sleeping with her professor and her "uncle" could wreck the family name.

"I've noticed you have only been calling me uncle in public," he murmured into her ear, lips traveling down across her neck.

"Of course. Can't have the normal humans thinking I'm sleeping with you. Besides, you have quite a few different names when we're in private."

She felt a sharp pain in her ear as he bit into it, fangs breaking the skin. She hissed and shoved him away, growling "Bastard," mockingly. His eyebrows rose.

"Oh, is that one of my names outside of school? News to me."

"It's not and you know it," she responded, grabbing his face and pressing her lips to his. "My lover," she breathed as he pulled away. He nipped her cheek gently.

"My little Rose," he responded.

There was a sudden shouting and commotion from outside the doors. Curious, Rose turned to the door, but knew she'd never get out of the room if Kain wasn't going to let her go. However, it seemed he as well wanted to know what was going on. He walked toward the hall and she followed, looking around. They finally came out to the main entrance of the college and saw a large bus parking in front of it. Becca came over and found her.

"What's going on?"

"Football players are coming," she responded with a shrug. "People get so worked up at this time. It's finally football session. Whopdeedo," she muttered sarcastically. Walking in front of the young men was a large, round man who was balding, but had that, 'I am a tough guy, do not fuck with me,' look about him.

"Who's that?"

"The coach," Kairan answered. Rose jerked slightly, having not sensed the mortal come up next to her in the press of people. She turned back to watch the football players, scouting to see if any of them were boyfriend material. She had to give them credit; a few of them were quite cute. However, the other females in the school were also vying for girlfriend position, and Rose never went out with anyone just because they were cute. The only thing that didn't escape her notice was the expressions on the teachers' faces as they looked on the coach. Rose leaned toward Becca.

"What's with the teachers?"

"Oh, them. The coach has basically 'spoke' to all of them to keep them out of getting in the way of the football players."

Rose winced and realized this, certainly, was not going to end well, then.


	7. Intermission!

Okay few notes: first of all, do not pissed off at the American bashing Raziel does. I myself am American. I've never even been to England. So, don't worry or complain. Most of the insults you will find in the story I often fall victim to. So calm down.

Also, no offense is meant to football players or cheerleaders. I'm neither, but they're so fun to make fun of. So take everything I write with a grain of salt.

As for reviews, I'm cheating. Since I have more than ninety reviews, I'm going to say a big THANK YOU to all of oyu who reviewed, and respond to only those who actually poke me into doing so. Sorry about not answering every single one, but I'm hoping to encourage people asking questions or making interesting quotes. And I don't want to stop this story with a lot of review responses. I'm eager to get this series told and further into. It is, as far as my muse and I see it, far from over. I still don't know how many stories there are going to be. So again, sorry for the shortening the reviews, but I can't answering every thirty that are just compliments. It's not that I don't love you; it's that I don't have the time.

Okay, first one is **1**'s review- and there's nothing wrong with being American, as said above. I am one, after all. Oh, and in reference to the crystal Lara gave Kain- that was what turned him to his young form that he comes back in. When he gets pissed he reverts back to his older form. By the way, Rose's never been to Nosgoth, but I'm planning…

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VladimirsAngel- In reference from the names of Nigel and Jeremy . . . Well, I want you to know that you're not supposed to like them much upon first meeting. Does it work?

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Bloodthirsty- You'll never cheerlead again, eh? … heh, heh, heh… read next chapter, and you might get an idea what I'm thinking for Diana now . . .

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SVP- he's not racist. It was supposed to be funny. *sigh* I need more readers who know I'm American so they don't get grouchy at me when I America bash. And are you now comfortable with the idea of Rose sleeping with Kain?

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VladimirsAngel (again) and **Syvia**- yep, you're right. He will grade stories about vampires for accuracy. And guess who gets to deal with his grading system? By the way, I'm thinking about having Kairan transfer into the class. What do you think, Angel?

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Seul Desire- my only comment about your review of Rose being a little brat is: You probably would think the same of me, then because Rose is very much modeled after me.

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Deionarra- if you think I lost control in the chapter, *shrug* too bad. I had fun with that chapter, and it was in both Rose's and Kain's persona. You must keep in mind, if Rose sounds like a thirteen year old, so what? You must keep in mind she's never been involved in a sexual relationship before, so she doesn't know what to do. So she trusts him as any new person to sex does with their partner.

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Syvia- you're bizarre with your little prophecies of storms. Not that you're wrong, but you're still bizarre.

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Kain-is-my-plushie- Thanks for the Moebius plushie. *DS takes out aggressions on it in the background. Comes back and sighs deeply as if a great weight has been lifted* Thanks.

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The Holy Beergut- You know, I hadn't thought of that. That opens interesting possibilities . . .

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Velixwar- As mentioned to **1** above, the crystal was what allowed Kain to shift down to his younger, BO2 form.

See, that didn't take long. To those of you I didn't respond to, again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! And if I get another review response thingy up early enough and there aren't many reviews, I will answer them all again. I just didn't want to do all ninety reviews.

And on to the next chapter . . . . -


	8. Blood and Football v Rugby

Rose flicked through the channels listless, bored out of her skull. She was going to have to get up and cook dinner soon, which meant she was going to have to try to _not_ set the smoke alarm off this time.

There was an abrupt knock on her door.

"Come on in," she called. She looked up as Kain walked in.

"Hey," Rose greeted him, sitting up, a curious expression on her face. "What are you doing here?"

He smirked knowingly, and she recognized the expression as he had something planned for her. "You haven't tried any Nosgothic dishes, have you?"

Rose blinked at him a long moment. "No, I haven't. Why?"

He pointed at her. "You sit there and stay. I'm taking over your kitchen for a short time."

"Ah . . . okay . . ." She watched him head through the little hall to her small kitchen. She continued blinking long after he had left. First of all, she hadn't known he could cook (although the abominable snowman could cook better than Rose could—she seemed to have picked up her mother's ability to cook) and second it was slightly bizarre to have Kain actually doing something for her.

"You really don't remember much of what I did for you when you were little, do you?" she heard his voice come from in the kitchen, Kain having read her thoughts. "I used to cook for you all the time. Granted, I was usually feeding you cereal, but . . ." She felt him shrug through her mind.

"I wondered why I have a strange avoidance of cereal these days," Rose muttered to herself. Kain laughed.

"No, that would probably be your vampire and Soul Reaver heritage taking hold. It seems you are capable of subsisting on normal human food, and probably blood and souls."

"Do you know that for sure?"

A low, dark chuckle issued from the kitchen. "By tonight we'll know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she inquired worriedly. Kain's trademarked laughter was her only answer. She proceeded to worry.

After a while, Kain finally stepped back out and grinned with that same mischievous smile that bordered on malevolence.

"Everything's ready."

He quickly brought out a covered plate and set it down on the table in front of her. He quickly lifted the top off, and she saw underneath it was a large amount of some type of meat that had been expertly cut and set for eating. She could smell and see that it was just barely touched by the heat of cooking, and blood still ran down it. He easily set down two wineglasses and a nondescript wine bottle next to it. Surprising her, the scent ran across her nose and as she inhaled it, she found the smell quite pleasant. Obviously, her stomach did as well, as it promptly rumbled in annoyance for not having eaten yet. Kain sat down next to her, quickly cut off a slice, and handed it to her before taking one himself. She blinked at this, having never seen him eat solid food. He smirked when he noticed her gaze.

"I can eat normal food. I just can't process it, so I do not get any nourishment from it."

"Ah."

Rose cautiously nibbled on the food and found it to her liking. She quickly ate through the piece she had and cut herself another piece. Kain smiled, having known she would like it, and pulled the cork out of the wine bottle and poured a dark, heady mixture into two glasses. He handed her one and as she eyed it suspiciously, he took a sip of his.

"Judging by the fact that you're drinking it," Rose stated carefully, "I'm assuming it's either alcohol or blood. And I don't like alcohol."

"And you like blood?" Kain responded with a smirk. He nodded his head toward the glass. "Drink."

She eyed him a moment longer, then placed the glass to her lips and tipped it back. Even before the liquid had reached her tongue, the smell had weaved its way into the back of her head and the depths of her soul. The drink touched her tongue and all thought was forgotten in the explosion of pleasure that surged across her body. The liquor seemed to have a beat, a pulse to its own, and her heart sped to match it. _This_ must be what liquor was like to people who could get drunk. A warm blanket of burning desire wrapped her entire body and when the rush was finally gone, she found the empty glass knocked over on the table and she was currently straddling Kain's waist, her lips against his passionately. She pulled back, panting.

"_What_ was _that_?" she demanded. His grin was pure chaotic evil.

"Liked the taste, eh?"

"What was it?" She already knew what it was, but she had to make sure, had to know that this was what kept his kind moving from night to night.

"Blood."

Rose let her head drop to his shoulder where she breathed shakily for a time, letting her heart slow to a normal tempo. _This_ was what it felt like for vampires when they drained a human of their life's blood? This pleasure was their gift for the feeding? Heavens above, did it feel wonderful. She could feel that side of her course as the blood made its way through her system. She could feel that part of her soul demand more to satiate itself. Rose had never killed to feed before, and Kain knew it. He was cultivating her for her first try.

She would have demanded to try her first hunt then and there, but Kain knew she wasn't ready, and he knew that was what was on her mind judging by the predatory gleam that radiated from her eyes. This one was more like him than she was willing to admit. To stop her from such foolish nonsense, he caught her chin and kissed her again, curving the vampiric hunger for blood to a hunger for physical pleasure instead. She pressed herself against him, her fangs nipping him ever so slightly. He leaned her back across the couch. She felt her legs snake around his waist, pulling him closer against her.

The phone suddenly rang. She growled under her breath and picked it up, putting it to her ear as Kain slid back and pulled her up to a sitting position so she was still pressed against him.

"Hello, Rose," a voice greeted her out of the phone. Rose winced.

"Hi, Dad."

Kain's eyes widened as he looked in surprise at her and the phone.

"How's everything over there? How are your classes? And how are you doing with Kain? If he's being a trouble . . ."

"Everything's fine," she replied. "Classes are great, and Kain's actually not bothering me."

"Really?"

Kain had been drawing away, a slightly distressed expression. The last thing he needed was for Raziel to find out about his relationship with his daughter. Rose, noticing his worry, waved a hand at him in a soothing gesture, telling him silently she wouldn't say a thing. Reassured, he suddenly was gifted with a very mean idea. As Rose answered questions from her father, he pressed her back again, his lips running across her neck. To add to the effect, he nipped every so often. He felt her curve up against him underneath him and her voice became a bit strained as she tried to keep a grip of her desire.

"Are you all right?" Raziel asked.

"Uh, yeah, Dad, but actually, you kind of caught me—"

"Here, your mother wants to talk to you."

Rose winced slightly at her luck. Kain's fingers had slid beneath her shirt and were massaging her breasts, breaking her concentration even more. She tried to squiggle away from him and only ended up turning his attention to teasingly unbuttoning her pants. She managed a few answers to her mother before Kain slid her shirt up over her head and kissed down the skin of her chest. Rose had finally hit the point where she could not pay attention to her mother any longer.

"Sorry, Mum, I accidentally left the water running in the shower. I gotta go turn it off. Talk to you later!" She quickly hung the phone up and turned a glare on the master vampire pressed against her.

"You're a lot of help."

"You expected me to be?" he responded before kissing her again and pressing her back. Her arms slid around his neck, pulling him closer to her.

"Keep in mind," Kain was saying the next day as he was handing out little slips of paper. "These grades are just a third and can change. Those of you with As and Bs—" He handed Rose hers which said 'A'— "you can settle down and get comfortable as long as you keep up what you've been doing. Those of you with Fs—" He released three pieces of paper into the air and each landed in front of one person each, all who happened to be football players— "might want to start applying yourself."

"Now, Mr. Kain," one of them started. "We have a lot to deal with, going through training for football session, and—"

Kain wheeled on him, golden eyes narrowing in a glare.

"I do not care," he enunciated slowly. "English is far more important than a stupid game where you jump and run around, sweat like swine, and run around after a pig-skin ball. So sit down, shut-up, and get working!"

The football players glared at Kain while Rose, Becca, and a few others applauded. Kain sat back down at his desk as the bell rang. People plowed out and Rose sat on the edge of his desk. She sighed, smiling.

"You are a mean bastard, you know?"

The door shut as the last student went out and Rose abruptly found herself in his lap, legs wrapped around his waist. He grinned and kissed her passionately.

"You realize there are already whispers going around the school about you and I sleeping together," Rose pointed out after she pulled away from the kiss.

"I'll make sure it dies quickly."

She pointed a stern finger at him, admonishing him quietly, "No killing anyone."

"Oohh." He snapped his fingers, then pressed his lips to hers and pulled her against his body. She nipped up his jaw line to his ear and bit it lightly.

"I'm hungry," she breathed pleadingly into his ear, pressing herself seductively up against him. He pulled back and smirked at her.

"Oh, are you?"

"Uh-huh," she whimpered, a carnal gleam in her eyes.

"Oh well, I suppose we'll just have to feed you."

He picked her up, set her down, and headed toward the door, dragging her along with him.

"Wait. Where are we going?"

"To the cafeteria, so we can feed you."

Rose blinked for a moment as Kain continued to drag her, then stated simply, "That wasn't what I meant."

"Oh, it wasn't?" He turned suddenly and pressed her up against the wall, grinding his hips lightly against hers.

"Was this what you meant?"

Rose hesitated to answer, not because she didn't know or didn't want to tell, but because of where they were. She was pushed up against a wall in one of the main halls and it was lunchtime. This situation was just begging to be discovered.

"Is it?"

"You know it is," she responded before biting him on the nose in annoyance. He pulled back slightly, rubbing his nose.

"That hurt, you know, little demon. And just for that—"

Both their supernatural hearings picked up the sound of footsteps coming toward them. A random young man Rose had never seen before walked around the corner and blinked in surprise at them. Kain glared at him and the boy's eyes glazed over.

"You didn't see anything," Kain told him and the boy nodded. "Keep walking."

The teenager walked past, eyes forward and not seeing anything. He rounded the corner and Kain pulled Rose away from the wall and both continued toward the cafeteria as if nothing had happened. Rose quickly ordered her food and sat down next to her friends.

"Hey, Rose," Kairan greeted her.

"Good-afternoon. What are you all up to?"

"Grumbling over the assignment your uncle gave us," Becca grouched from where she was sitting looking over her books. Rose leaned over and pointed at a few lines.

"He'll want to hear about that and that."

"What's he got you reading about now?" Diana asked as she sat down, noticing the books strewn on the table.

"Demons," Rose and Becca said simultaneously.

"Why demons?"

"Because it's an exercise in futility," Becca growled. "I almost thinks he wants us to look it up so he can watch us panic when we can't find enough material for the required twenty pages."

"Twenty pages?" Diana and Kairan exclaimed simultaneously. "That's a lot for mythological creatures."

"Tell you what, Becca," Rose told her. "How about after school you come back to my apartment with me and we'll work on it together. Okay?"

"I'm not sure. I may have class work to do. I may have to do something. But I'll see."

"Speaking of which, Rose," Diana commented, leaning over to her, "you haven't invited us over to see your apartment."

"I haven't, have I?" Rose murmured. "Well, I'd do it today, but if Becca comes over to work, we'd need quiet to work."

"Ah," Becca chuckled, "let them come. I've learned to ignore them. They're noisy, but pretty easy to tune out. After all, they are extremely boring."

"HEY!"

"You're one to talk, Miss Bottle-Cap-Collection."

"Now, we've been through this. It isn't a bottle cap collection. It's the caps and bottles from countries out of the United States that have McDonalds and fast-food places and how Americanized they are. It's my way of reminding myself how America gets into other countries and refuses to leave."

Everyone just blinked at her a moment. In retribution, she stuck her tongue out at her friends. Rose chuckled, then glanced up as the doors to the cafeteria opened. She watched as the three football players from Becca and her class walked in, following none other than the coach. They headed for Kain. Rose waved an indication to her friends and they looked up and watched. Kain obviously saw them coming, as he made a point of flicking one of the crackers he had been eating into the air and catching it in his mouth, looking relatively bored. The room went quiet as the coach's shadow fell over him.

"You must be the new English teacher."

Kain glanced up at him, then dismissed him from mind. "And you must be the 'coach'."

"Now, look." The coach leaned down on the table in front of Kain. "I've heard that you've given my boys grades that they don't deserve in your class, and I think you have to realize that we all have to be team players for everyone to succeed. These boys are under a lot of pressure, dealing with the rigorous training, so everyone here knows to be a little lax on them during this time." He continued as Kain stood, cleared the table, and put the dishes he was using away. The coach's speech was full of subtle threats and artful put-downs—apparently he had practiced it a lot. Then Kain calmly went back to his classroom, the coach following and still giving his speech. Rose and her friends followed behind, curious to see what he was up to. Behind them traveled a large group of students, also interested in seeing what was going to happen. Kain sat down at his desk, pulled out some papers, and continued grading them.

Finally the coach wrapped up his speech and inquired, "So what do you think?"

Kain shook his head and looked up at him. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Would you mind repeating yourself?"

The coach swallowed a curse in anger and leaned down near Kain's face. "You will give my boys a break and give them at least a passing grade in the class. They are under enormous pressure."

Kain blinked at him a moment. "Statement looked at and dutifully ignored. No, I won't give them a passing grade when they don't deserve it. Your precious football players are not under any stress. They are merely lazy. And you have scared all the other teachers here into submission so they will not think to stand against what you say. So, no, I will not help them pass a class they are just being idle and lethargic in."

The coach breathed in slowly, trying to hold his growing rage. "You pompous British bastard, you think you're so much better than all of us. Football is a dangerous sport and only those courageous enough do it. You don't see your English pansy-asses out there running after that ball!"

Kain tilted his head back and gave his most chilling laugh. Many of the students shivered at hearing it, but Rose stretched forward as if it were an invisible hand caressing across her body. She loved that laugh. Granted, she never wanted to have it aimed toward her, but otherwise . . .

"_We_ do not put on six hundred pounds of plastic protective gear in order to go out and play _rugby_. After all, we were the country that invented it! Your players go out safely covered from head to toe. Ours go out in normal clothes, unafraid of having our flesh slammed in or bones broken. That is _far_ more hardcore than any of your games could ever be. Now, you bald, impotent, dim-witted, obese simpleton, get out of my room!"

The coach glared daggers at Kain and pulled back and punched the English teacher. The coach expected to meet soft cloth, a thin layer of skin, and paper-thin bones. What his fist met was marble-hard flesh and bones made of steel. He blinked up at Kain in surprise. Kain chuckled sadistically and a malevolent smile crossed his lips.

"You have no idea how much I was hoping you'd do that."

Rose, who—with her friends and the other students—was the only one with her supernatural hearing to be able to make out the sound of the coach punching Kain. She quickly pulled her friends back from the door, knowing what to expect. The door opened inward toward the class, and everyone watched as the coach opened the door out with his back and it split and shattered away from the man's body. Kain snarled from inside the classroom. The coach shook his head and stood, staring at Kain, then did the most intelligent thing he had done all day; he turned and started running. Kain reached out and broke the flag, pulled the cloth off of it, and ran after the coach with his makeshift spear, shouting, "Don't run! I only want to play!!" Everyone raced after the pair, noting immediately that the English teacher, who were supposedly notoriously weak and not physically-oriented, was easily catching up to the coach. Kain finally overtook him at the football field. The coach managed to find a shovel to battle with Kain. The two engaged in a short fencing game, but it was obvious Kain was the more practiced of the two.

Kain suddenly spiraled in and slapped the coach across the face with the spear, then moved out. Fueled by sheer adrenaline and fear, the coach spun the shovel around, and, by complete luck, actually slammed the flat, blade-like side into the side of Kain's neck. The vampire's head twisted at an odd angle and he fell to the ground. The coach panted, then realized he had just committed homicide in front of a huge group of students. He turned to them, gesturing soothingly.

"This isn't what it looks like!"

Rose watched as Kain slowly drew himself to his feet behind the coach and cracked his neck, stretching it to one side, then the other.

"That hurt, you know," Kain growled in a low voice. The coach's eyes widened and he spun, his face loosing color as Kain lunged forward, grabbed him by the neck, and lifted him up a foot in the air. Rose, who stood apart from the group could see red lightning crackling across his form as he slipped back to his old self, fingers turning to talons around the coach's neck and eyes turning from golden to cat-like yellow with slits.

Suddenly, the campus police decided to take that moment to show up. Kain dropped the coach, immediately shifting back to his younger form. The police quickly questioned him, but strangely enough, they didn't seem to think it very serious. In fact, they decided merely to take them up to the dean. Rose noticed as they said their verdict that their eyes were glazed over ever so slightly. The police escorted Kain and the coach to the dean's office and the group of students followed, curious to see what was going to befall the two teachers. The group was left outside of the dean's office for a few minutes, then the door opened and the coach was escorted back out in handcuffs, the police dragging him outside.

"You can't do this to me!" he shouted at them as he was taken out of the hall. Kain came out of the dean's office and he shook hands with the old man.

"Wonderful, wonderful," the dean murmured as if they had just finished talking. He patted Kain on the shoulder and went back into his office. Whispering curiously, the students began to disperse and Kain walked over toward Rose. Becca leaned over to her.

"We'll be vanishing now, but you have to tell us what happened, okay? Oh, and I don't think I'll be able to come over today. I realized I have a major test to study for."

"All right, no problem," Rose responded easily. "And of course I'll tell you what happened."

She watched as Kain walked up to her.

"So, what happened?" she inquired.

Kain smirked maliciously as he answered, "You are looking at the new football coach."

"Ack!" Rose made a surprised noise, then shook her head. "I am so glad I am not on that team right now. I wouldn't want to suffer."

"You think this is a picnic for me?" Kain responded. "And so, I've decided I'm not going to suffer this fate alone."

He tossed her a clipboard and walked away. She glanced at it, her eyes widened, and she ran after Kain.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's this?!"

"It's a cheerleading sign up," he replied. "I thought you could read."

"I can," she protested. "But _me_?! Sign up for cheerleading?!"

"Exactly. If I have to go to hell, I'm taking you with me. And besides, you'll be getting extra credit for my class doing it, and you need it."

"GRRRRR!!" she shouted after him as he sped up. She glared down at the try-outs and swore quite roundly. With a whimpered sigh, she went home. Once she got there, she picked up the phone, dialed a long number, and waited for it to pick up.

"Hello?" It was Raziel's voice that filtered through the receiver.

"Dad," she whimpered, "how do I get Kain out of my life and get him to stop messing with it?!"

". . ." There was a pause. "Here, talk to your mother for a bit."

Once Lara had the phone in her grip, Raziel tipped his head back and roared with laughter, having to sit down to keep from falling. Rose, on the other end, glared at the phone crossly. Lara lifted the phone to her ear.

"I take it, judging by the way your father's laughing, you asked him something about keeping Kain away from you or stopping him from meddling."

"Yeah," Rose grumbled.

"Ah, it seems he's done. Your father wants to speak to you again, Rose."

"Believe me, Rose," Raziel's voice began again. "If I knew how to get him out of anyone's life, I would have used it to get him out of mine long ago. There just isn't a way."

"So what do you suggest I do?"

Raziel sighed. "Well, he hates having his plans used against him, and he hates being manipulated. What's he got you doing that you so despise?"

"Cheerleading."

There was a brief silence again. "You don't know how to use this? Isn't this the sport of girls wearing close to nothing and dancing erotically around, driving the male population into a frenzy?"

"Yeah."

Raziel gave out an exasperated sound. "And you aren't seeing how you can use this to your advantage? Rose, Kain, while being a vampire, is still a male. He's still subject to the hormones that drive men crazy. Are you getting the picture now?"

"Oooh." Rose paused. "I wouldn't have ever thought you'd be encouraging me to basically try to seduce him, Dad."

"If it pisses him off because it ruins his plan, I'm completely for it. Just don't go too far with it, Rose. He's dangerous."

"I know, Dad. But you know what this means? I have to go shopping again." She grinned malevolently, and though no one was there to tell her, the smile was the exact same as Kain's.

From the phone came an annoyed sigh. Obviously, Raziel had put Lara back on the phone again.

"Just keep the spending down, all right?" Lara requested. Rose agreed, said her good-byes to her parents, and eagerly headed out to get some shopping done so she could be ready for the try-outs the next day.


	9. Kain's Method of Coaching Football

One of the girls flipped on the sound system as she waited for the try-outs to start. The soft pulse crept out of the stereo, making the air seem to beat around the girls. Across the gym, the football players stretched and ran through their daily warm-ups. Kain stood nearby, watching the humans disgustedly. The cheerleaders also ran through a quick warm-up as the music grew slowly louder, the beat pounding out through the gym. The frenzied pulse grew louder and louder, until at the peak of the beat, the music exploded into throbbing beats and crying instruments as the double doors to the gym's entrance slammed open. Everyone, football players and cheerleaders alike, looked up to watch Rose storm in, wearing a black leather trench coat and slightly heeled boots. Her hair was pulled up and back, her pointed ears showing to the entire world, and a malicious smirk graced her features, noticeably underneath her lips the unmistakable whiteness of her fangs. As the beat continued, Rose strode in time to it toward the girls, letting her trench coat drop to the floor to reveal an ankle-long black skirt with slits running up to her hips and a silver halter top. She was almost screaming to the world, _'I'm a fucking **vampire**! What are you going to do about it?!'_ Several catcalls penetrated the air from the football players' side, and she glanced over in amusement to see multiple mouths drop. With a pleased smile, her gaze landed on Kain to see his glasses were pushed down the bridge of his nose, and he rested one hand against his face, the front finger resting against his temple, the thumb under his jaw. She knew he was using it to keep his own mouth from dropping.

'Two can play at this game, master vampire,' she thought to herself contentedly. She turned back to the cheerleaders and was surprised to find Kairan climbing across the bleachers toward her, another girl behind her. The girl walking behind her was tan skinned, had long black hair that was meticulously brushed back into a ponytail, and silvery-gray eyes.

"Hey, what's with the outfit, Rose?" Kairan inquired. Rose shrugged.

"I just felt like it. Who's this?"

"Rose, meet Metowaka. She's the friend Diana mentioned."

Rose cocked her head to the side, taking in the facial structure of the young woman. She looked perhaps seventeen and was outfitted in mostly black with little bits of gold for highlights. Rose offered a hand and Metowaka took it and shook it with a strong, but gentle grip.

"To be honest," Rose stated, "I have never heard of a name in quite the same structure before. How did you come by the name, if you don't mind my inquiring?"

"I'm Native American," the young woman responded in a soft but energetic tone.

"Really?" Rose smiled. "Sometime I would love to hear about the customs of your people if we get the time and you don't mind. I'm rather knew to America all around."

"I guessed as much from your accent. British?"

"Mm-hm."

"She's from England," Kairan supplied helpfully.

"Hey!" another voice cried from the bleachers. The three girls turned to see Diana hopping down them toward the trio.

"Did you forget about me?"

"Oh, yeah, Diana's here as well, Rose."

Diana punched Kairan lightly on the arm.

"Thanks a lot."

"You're welcome."

Rose sighed and shook her head, a smile on her face. She abruptly clapped her hands and looked around at the assembled girls.

"Well, let's get this show on the road, everyone."

The "preps" of the school watched in amusement as Rose quickly got everyone up and started placing them in lines. They knew that inevitably it'd be one of their numbers who ended up head of the cheerleading squad. After all, they had been cheerleading since high school. This exchange student probably hadn't done it ever, so they laughed but let Rose try out having the crown of leadership around her neck choking her. As they progressed into a half an hour of the trials, they began to realize that Rose was handling the responsibility better than any of them ever had, and that was unforgivable. One by one, or two by two, the girls walked out of the try-out, in protest of a newbie leading the team. The try-outs had consisted with a number of about forty girls, and once all the harpies had left, the group was condensed down to a nice size of fifteen. Perfect for what they wanted to do.

The dean and a few other teachers had come down to judge the girls and found all the remaining girls acceptable. They took a few minutes to jot down notes about each girl and write who made it and who didn't, making it take a grand total of one hour. They posted the list on the wall, nodding to the girls whom made it, and left it to them to choose a cheerleading captain.

Rose immediately noticed the looks she was given after the teachers had left and vaguely wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew. She really hadn't possessed any intention of becoming the captain. She had taken control of the try-outs because she wanted to make them as erotic for the male populous on the other end of the gym as possible without going too far out. She started to quietly slip toward the back when Diana turned on her.

"I nominate Rose!"

"As do I!" Kairan added. Rose shot her friend a dirty look and Kairan shrugged with a 'ha ha, you got yourself into this' expression.

After a few moments of whispering between all the girls, they all decided to go ahead and go with it. None of the others wanted to take up the mantle of responsibility, especially with the normal women who took it gone. So Rose was given it all because she wanted to spite Kain.

'Speaking of . . .' She glanced over and realized with a start that the entire football team had settled down and was watching the try-outs with intense fascination. She glanced over at Kain and met his gaze as he looked up at her at the same moment. He shook his head quickly and turned to the team, roaring at them to get off their lazy arses and practice.

A few days passed in such a way, and Rose came to be good friends with Metowaka. She kept the cheerleaders always up and distracting the football players, and no matter where Kain would move the football team, the cheerleaders would end up gravitating to it. During one of his practices, Kain finally hit a limit after having to draw the attention of the third person from the window where the cheerleaders were.

"All right, that's enough. I feel you have all been experiencing far too many distractions, so I have come to a conclusion and decided to change things."

The football team looked up hopefully, wishing he'd cancel the practice so they could go watch the cheerleaders in peace.

"I'm changing the warm-ups," Kain continued. He waved a hand, and a collection of ropes dropped down, hanging a good four feet above the boys' heads. They looked up at them incredulously as he continued, "No one is leaving here until you have all climbed at least one of the ropes."

There was a dull click as the doors to the gym locked to emphasize his statement. The boys looked amongst themselves and the cheerleaders, having noticed something different about the team, followed their captain as Rose headed up to the window and peeked in.

"And just what is our motivation for doing something like this?" one of the football players demanded.

Kain smirked cruelly. "This is your motivation," he answered, walking over to a large box and flipping the gate open. The football team watched in horror as a large tiger padded out of the box. The pulled away, naturally afraid of it, before one of the boy's gathered his courage and stepped forward.

"Ah, it's got to be a tame tiger," he stated calmly. The tiger almost seemed to look up at Kain. Kain nodded once.

"Sic them."

The tiger let out a bellowing roar and ran toward the boys, claws extended. The football players wisely turned and raced away, many jumping up to grab the rope. With the addition adrenaline, they quickly jumped up and climbed the ropes to get away from the giant feline. Kain chuckled maliciously, walked up behind the cat—who was staring up at the boys hungrily—and scratched behind its ear gently. The cat rumbled in its throat in pleasure. After leaving the feline there for a while, he finally urged it back into the box, closed the door, and let the football players come down.

"Practice dismissed," he told them. The quickly ran toward the door which was unlocked now, and raced out. Rose let the cheerleaders leave and headed into the gym to see Kain rolling the box out.

"That was a mean trick," she told him, grinning.

"I could have been worse," he responded. "In fact, I could have put them into the pool with crocodiles, but they were a bit short notice. I could also have—"

"I don't want to know!" Rose protested. Before she could escape, he grabbed her and set her down on one of the bleachers, then started telling her what he could have done and how. She groaned and after a minute, when his back was turned, she grabbed her trusty little CD player and stuck the earphones in her ears. Kain continued talking, nicely drowned out by music. She let her head bob slowly in time to the music, and finally after about ten minutes, Kain peered at her, and nodded, obviously having finished his lecture. She quickly pulled the earphones off, noting he didn't look surprised in the least to see them. He simply gave her a malicious smile.

"Uh oh," she mumbled. "I'm going to get it for this, aren't I?"

"No, you already are." He walked toward the door, her following. He stopped at the threshold and looked back at her, continuing, "You've agreed to clean the gym." He shrugged and shut the door, and she heard it lock. She knew it wasn't going to unlock until she was done. She glanced around the gym sullenly.

"You know, I really do hate him."


	10. More Coaching and Story SetUp

Days continued, and Kain used more and more outrageous ways of getting the football team into shape. Rose did have to give him credit; they were looking good. But the first real sign of it working was when they won two games in a row and were hyped up for the third. They had changed the mascot from that of a puma to the hellhounds. There had been a big conference about it, asking the coach to step up and give a speech or response as to why it was changing. Kain had simply stepped up to the podium, sternly told them to go away and mind their own business, and they strangely had left. People had brought complaints against his teaching style (both English and coaching), but for some reason, at the pivotal moment, the accuser decided he was going to drop the charges for no particular reason. The football team, though hating his harshness and how cruel and sadistic he could be, came to love him for his honor and the fact that in all, he wanted them to win more than they did, and he did it for their benefit. They were quickly getting into better shape than they had ever been, and the three boys in his English class now had Bs instead of Fs.

It was a few days before the third game, and the cheerleaders were all sitting on the bleachers, watching the team who stood around in the two-mile track. There was a large fence on both sides of the track. Kain walked down to meet them.

"Hey, coach, what's with the fence?" one of the football players asked.

"Oh, that's to keep you from cheating and leaving the track," Kain responded calmly. "Today, you're going to be running."

There was a collective groaning from the team. Kain fixed them with an icy glare, and snarled, "I'll give you a head start. Get going."

He turned and headed toward a side path, which had a gate across it. He quickly unlocked it, walked through, and disappeared. A few seconds later, the revving of an engine was heard. Suddenly, out of the side path and around the corner, rolled a gigantic truck. Kain calmly leaned out of the side and gave them a malevolent smile.

"Start running."

The football team all shared a look, then turned and hightailed it down the track, trying to get as far away from the coach as possible. Suddenly, from in the bleachers, Rose started laughing, and Metowaka, Diana, and Kairan all looked at her funny.

"What's up, Rose?" Diana asked worriedly.

"Oh, nothing," Rose responded with a shake of her head. "Just amused, that's all. That's Kain for you. Glad I'm not down there."

Kairan gave her an odd look.

"No 'Uncle' Kain this time, eh? Just plain old Kain?"

"You know what I mean," Rose growled. The girls shared a look, excluding Rose from it.

"What?" the crossbreed demanded.

"Well, you know, Rose," Diana stated with a shrug, "there are a lot of rumors that you two are sleeping together. You two are always together."

Rose looked at them, astonished. "Do you really think that's what's going on?"

"Well, let's be honest," Kairan added. "You haven't had a date the entire time you've been here, and there are plenty of cute guys who have been interested in you. It's not like you're actually discouraging the rumors, dear."

Rose sighed. "You're right, I suppose."

It was time, then, for Rose to actually start combating rumors, and she had a feeling that Kain was not going to be happy one way or another.

"It was rather strange," Kain was saying the next day to Rose as she sat on one of the tables in his room. She had dropped her first class of the morning so she could sleep in and have Kain's class as her first class of the day. It was late afternoon, long after her classes, and she was spending some extra time with Kain helping him grade papers before going home.

"I didn't get any of my normal death threats and attempts on my life," he continued. Ever since the school had come to the collective conclusion that Kain and Rose were sleeping together, both had suffered multiple attempts on their lives and threats of all sorts. Rose's came from the angry female population who wanted to go out with Kain, and Kain's was from the male population who either wanted to go out with Rose, or who felt he was threatening their relationships with their girlfriends.

"Yeah, neither did I," Rose added. Kain shook his head.

"Rather bizarre." He looked up at her. "Do you know why?"

"Uh," Rose hesitated. She knew inevitably he'd find out, and better from her lips than someone else's, but she still wasn't sure how he was going to take the news.

"Yeah?" she finished almost as a question. Kain gave her a quizzical, and, at the same time, suspicious look. She coughed slightly, looked down, and swallowed.

"I went out on a date last night."

" . . . " Kain blinked at her, trapped between confusion and rage. "You did _what?!_ How long have you been going on dates without my knowledge?"

"Last night was the first one. I did it so that these rumors would stop." She looked up at him almost fearfully. "You're not too terribly angry, are you?"

"Oh, of course not," he assured her.

'I'm **furious**,' he growled to himself mentally instead. Rose glanced away from his gaze out the window and her eyes widened.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking back at him worriedly.

"What would make you ask that?" he responded pleasantly. She decided not to mention the fact that the church's crosses from across the street had begun to twist and knot in unnatural ways with no obvious reason why they were moving. Kain finally sighed deeply, as if letting out some tension, and the crosses stopped bending.

"With who, may I ask?"

"Will Giovanni."

Kain paused. "He's on the football team. Rose, he's not the . . . type you'd prefer. And he definitely wouldn't be any good for you. Do you want me to tell you every little dark secret he possesses? It would do you good to know."

"No, no, no," Rose responded. "I don't want to know all his little secrets. I'd like to believe for once in human goodness."

He met her gaze for a long moment and didn't say anything. Then he sighed and told her, "All right, I promise I will not interfere with this. I won't meddle."

"Thank you," Rose answered.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. Kain walked over to it, opened it, looked out, and calmly shut the door again. She watched as he walked over to the window, opened it, and started to climb through it. Blinking at this, Rose walked to the door and opened it to see a huge collection of women, all with cards or hearts, desiring to get to Kain. Rose glanced out the window and saw he was hurrying to his car. A malicious thought struck her, and she turned to the girls and said, "There he goes! He's heading for his car!"

All the girls immediately made noises of surprise and went racing after him while Rose chuckled to herself malevolently. She grabbed her backpack and headed home.

For a couple of hours she sat around, did her homework, and watched television. As she was starting to consider dinner, there was a knock on her door.

"Yes?" she called.

"Open. The. Door," was the softly growled response from the other side. Rose's eyes widened and she hastily dropped what she was doing, grabbed the doorknob, and opened the door enough to peek outside. Kain stood, glaring down at her, covered in flowers, lipstick marks, and had a very furious expression on his face. She immediately swung the door open fully and Kain stormed in and sat down on her couch, glaring at her.

"Why did you do that?"

Rose let her head drop and looked at her feet, looking very like a child who had misbehaved and knew she shouldn't have done it.

"Well, it was funny at the time."

"And after I had just promised I wasn't going to get involved in your love life, too."

Rose looked up at him, eyes widening, as she managed out in a whisper, "Oh shit."

"Yes, you had better curse," he retorted, standing. "Congratulations, Rose. You've just encouraged me to meddle as much as possible in this affair, so I hope you're happy."

She edged away as he stalked closer until she ended up pressed against a wall, Kain towering over her.

"What are you planning on doing?" she squeaked.

"Oh nothing much. I'm just going to make you chose between him and me."

"Agh." She slipped past him and retreated into the kitchen. "I can't make that decision," she continued. "I don't know him well, and I don't know if I would be happy staying with you for the rest of my life."

Kain was silent for a moment, and she turned as he stated softly, "If that's truly how you feel." To her surprise, he had a very hurt expression on his face, and he turned away and started walking toward the door. Fear ran through her that he would leave and she'd never see him again and spurred her to dart across the room and wrap her arms around his waist, burying her face against his chest.

"I didn't mean it," she told him, voice muffled. "I really didn't mean it. I'm just so confused by this all." She looked up at him, grabbed his face, and pulled him down to kiss him. She sighed deeply as she let him go.

"I did the one thing that Dad warned me never to do when it came to you."

"And what's that?"

"Trust you."

He chuckled softly and dryly. "In most areas, he's right, don't ever trust me. But keep in mind, Rose, I will never betray you, and on that you can trust me completely." He paused, then looked down at her.

"Well, it's almost winter break. We're do back at your parents' house then."

"Yup, that we are. I get to go home." Then she grabbed his face and pulled him down and kissed him passionately.

"What are you going to do about your boyfriend?" Kain teased her, biting her ear lightly.

"Fuck him," she growled vindictively, not wanting that topic to come up in the foreplay.

"I should hope not," Kain retorted, pulling her toward her bed. "That's my job."

"That's not funny."

"Yes it is."

"No it's not."


	11. Raziel Blows a Gasket

LOOKY LOOKY! I have FANART!!! YAYAY!! *chibi DragonSeer hops up and down and waves a flag* PLEASE PLEASE check it out and I'd be happy to get more fanart! I'll put it up! Really! I will! If you'd like to check it out, look in my bio, which I'm updating as we speak. It's cool!

Rose leaned back and sighed deeply. Sooo bored!! She was sitting on the plane without anything to do, and the trip to England was a long twelve-hour flight. She glanced around, looking for an escape from her boredom. Her things were all in the cargo bay, as was a large sarcophagus which she knew housed Kain's sleeping form. Desperate to move, she stood and walked toward the bathroom, though she really didn't need to make use of it. She slid in and locked the door behind her, then leaned her forehead against the mirror and sighed deeply.

"Bored?" a familiar voice asked from behind her just as she felt a tall male form press up against hers. She didn't need to turn to recognize Kain, nor could she have if she had wanted to. The added bulk of the master vampire to her frame made it nearly impossible to move.

"Very," she answered, relieved to hear his voice. She felt the energy of his teleportation spell swirl around their bodies, and she found herself safely tucked in his sarcophagus and pressed up against Kain.

"Better?"

"Much," she responded, and turned toward him. She kissed him lightly, then snuggled under his chin. She felt the very slow but steady pulse run through his throat as he chuckled softly.

"Mum! Dad!" Rose dropped the bag she was carrying and hugged her parents, finding herself surprisingly happy to be home. The climate of England wrapped around her and she sighed, feeling old memories stir in the back of her mind.

"So, how is America?" Lara inquired, a smile on her face.

"It's good, but it's certainly not England."

"And did you buy clothes until your heart was content?" Raziel demanded.

"No," she responded. "I actually didn't buy that much in the ways of clothes while I was there. I didn't really need it. American fashion is just about everything, it seems."

The three walked toward the car, reminiscing on her trials and tribulations through the United States. Kain walked slightly behind them, watching Rose. His relationship with her certainly hadn't gone the way he had expected it to. Oh, he always knew that she'd sleep with him; that he had known since they had discovered she would be the first vampire who could breed. Even if she hadn't already been interested in him, he would have made her be. That should have been one of the tip-offs, though, the fact that she was so fascinated by him, so interested in being at his side. If he had been forced to manipulate the relationship, he wouldn't care about continuing to manipulate it. But Rose had done everything by her own free will, and that was something he was not accustomed to. Raziel had told her enough of his tales that she would know that Kain would inevitably manipulate her, and yet she still walked down this road fearlessly. And that was one of the worst things she could do.

Ah, who was he kidding? Lying to other people was one thing, but not to himself. It was the worst choice only for him, and he knew it. He loved his little Rose, the child he had watched grow, the child who could save his world. But he was beginning to wonder if he just might love the woman whom his 'little' Rose was growing into . . .

A few days passed as Rose settled back into her home for the duration of the week. The relative atmosphere of the mansion was a happy one, though Raziel and Kain clashed personas every so often. As promised, Kain and Rose stayed as far away from each other as they always had, and acted as though nothing had ever happened between them. Rose still threw a ball at his head every so often, just to get the annoyed reaction she expected.

"Mum," Rose stated on the morning of the third day, "I think I'd like to do a little shopping, if we can. There are some things you just cannot get in America."

"All right, Rose. We can go today, it you'd like."

Raziel, who had just walked in, groaned slightly to himself. This was going to mean that inevitably he and Kain would get dragged along. Kain, who had also come in at the wrong time, shared a look with his first born, and both nodded silently, then turned toward their respective doors, and walked back out of the room again to go hide from the crazy females. Lara's eyes narrowed at this.

"Go find your father, I'll go get Kain."

"Right-o."

Her mother gave her an odd look before heading after the master vampire. Rose turned to go find her father.

After a few minutes of rounding up the respective males, the four headed out toward the mall that Rose had been used to visiting a year ago. They headed into the three-story mall and Rose sighed, having forgotten what the place was like. Pulled in different directions by their separate interests, the four moved apart and went where they wanted. Rose wandered aimlessly for a while until she felt a light tap at her shoulder. She turned to see one of the mall cops looking around nervously a moment, then grinned what was supposed to be a winning grin at her. Rose swore mentally and sighed aloud; it was Hubert.

"Well, hello," he greeted her. She glared at him.

"You don't remember me, do you?"

He blinked curiously at her. "I would think I would remember someone as beautiful as you, so no, I don't believe we have."

"I must have hit you rather hard with that hotdog stand then," another male voice growled lowly. Hubert turned and his face drained of color as his gaze met the golden one of Kain. He stepped back a few paces to get away from the vampire, and bumped into someone. He spun and grabbed onto the man's shirt.

"You have to help me! That man's going to kill me!"

"There, there," he responded, and his skin shifted from tan to blue. "He'll only kill you if I don't get to you first."

The cop screamed and raced as fast as he could away, and Rose was doing her best not to laugh. Lara walked up calmly to them and let an arm sneak around the now human-looking Soul Reaver.

"That wasn't nice," Rose told them.

"We're not nice," Raziel answered with a slight shrug. Rose sighed and shook her head.

"I think I've had enough shopping now," the crossbreed stated bluntly. After such a joyous little interaction with the human, no one was really in the mood to complain. The ride back to the mansion was quiet, as Rose staring out the window, Kain was in contemplation of the things that had changed on Nosgoth and the things he had to do when he returned, Raziel pondered how to get said master vampire out of his family's life, and Lara was left shaking her head, intuitively guessing what was going on in her husband's mind. After finally getting to the mansion, Kain teleported somewhere, Lara decided to go back into the training room, and Rose headed up to her room. She looked up as she headed in to find Kain standing across the room.

"What's up?" she inquired.

"I came to have some along time with you," he answered and walked toward her. She grinned impishly and shook her head as he leaned down to kiss her, then she stepped away.

"We can't do this, you know."

"Oh, I know." He caught her and pulled her against him, his claws slipping up under the back of her shirt and scratching the skin gently. She stretched under the back scratch, but tried to stay immune to him. She knew it was a loosing battle; after all, it was a wonderful back scratch. She felt herself lean up against him, and he kissed her again before moving her and leaning her back across the bed.

Suddenly, there was an "Ahem" from the doorway. Both looked up to see Raziel standing with his arms crossed, glaring down at the two. Kain hastily stood, pulling Rose up with him.

"Dad, I can explain."

"I'm sure you can, Rose," her father responded. "But that's not going to save him." The Reaver didn't unfurl into life; rather, it was inexplicably there when it hadn't before. The Soul Reaver's eyes had begun to glow white. Kain, knowing with full surety that he could easily take on Raziel, began charging up. He paused, realizing that his power would probably level half the mansion. With that in mind, Kain did the thing anyone would expect of him: he kept charging up. Then his eyes fell on Rose, and while he didn't care about the mansion, he realized Rose would probably be badly hurt. So he did the next best thing; he teleported to a place outside where they could fight and no one would be hurt. Raziel lunged out the window after the master vampire, and Rose quickly raced out of her room to find her mother. Lara glanced up at her daughter's panicked face and immediately pulled out the MP5 and headed out toward the front yard of the mansion.

Raziel and Kain were in the front of the mansion engaged in a huge battle that was quickly tearing up the landscape.

"What is your father so angry about?" Lara inquired, watching Raziel attacked single-mindedly the master vampire.

"Ah, he, uh, walked into my room while Kain was in there, and, heh . . ."

"You two were kissing, weren't you?" her mother sighed. Rose looked up at Lara quickly.

"You knew?"

"Of course. I noticed it right before you left to go to college. I had been hoping your father wouldn't find out for a much longer time. Oh well. I hoped in vain, it seems. Let's go stop your father from killing Kain, shall we?"

"And how are we going to do that?"

Lara calmly walked out to the battlefield and waited until the two broke apart long enough for her to walk over to Raziel. She grabbed his arm and he spun toward her, eyes demanding why she interceded. She ignored the question, stepped up to him, and kissed him, pulling him against her so he couldn't move away. He twisted his head and tried to pull away. He wasn't about to be distracted by her.

"No sex," Lara stated firmly. Raziel stopped and turned toward her, blinking in surprise.

" . . . Was that a threat?"

"No, it's the consequence of your actions should you continue this pointless battle."

Raziel's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare."

"Love, you should know me well enough now to know that I never bluff."

He let out an aggravated sound. Lara smiled, knowing she had won, then turned on Kain. The master vampire's eyes widened, then five minutes and much cursing later, he was tied to a chair in the main hall with a piece of tape over his mouth so he couldn't infuriate Raziel with a verbal jab. Raziel sat at the head of the table and looked at Rose for a long moment.

"So, how long has this been going on?"

Rose hesitated. "A few months."

"Rose," Raziel sighed. "I have told you enough about him that you should know better than to trust him."

"I know, Dad."

He was silent a moment. "Do you love him?"

Rose looked up in surprise and met her father's carefully neutral gaze.

"What?"

"Do you love him?" Raziel stood and walked toward her. She naturally looked away from her father's probing eyes, but he put a claw under her chin and forced her to look up at him. Rose hesitated and glanced at Kain. He watched her with a serious expression, having forgotten for the moment he was bound. She looked back up at her father.

"For good or for ill . . . I think I do."

Raziel turned away from her for a moment and gazed into the open silently. Then he smirked, walked over to Kain, and pulled the tape off Kain's mouth. He leaned down and cut the bonds with his claws. His smirk widened to a malevolent smile as Kain eyed him worriedly.

"Well, she loves you, so that gives you a free pass out of this beating. And, besides, I know if you hurt her, she'll allow me to kill you."

Happy he'd inevitably get his revenge, Raziel walked out of the room to go join Lara in the training hall. Rose looked up at Kain as he walked slowly toward her.

"Would you send Raziel after me if I did hurt you?"

Rose hesitated as she thought. They were on dangerous territory, as Rose didn't want to be hurt, but she knew that Kain would never be comfortable in a relationship with her if she held any sort of obvious threat over him. Any way of revenge for her would have to be subtler than that. And it came down to the fact that she loved him too much that, no matter how deeply he hurt her, she would never sic Raziel on Kain.

"No, I wouldn't."

Kain leaned down and kissed her passionately. She snuggled up against him and sighed. He kissed her gently on the ear and murmured into her ear, "My little Rose."

"My master vampire."

"I'm not yours. You are mine."

"Hey. If I'm yours, then you're mine."

"Nope. Doesn't work that way, Rose."

"Grr."


	12. The Pleasure and Pain of Blood

It was a surprisingly warm day for England's weather, and Rose sighed deeply, breathing in the air. Kain and she would be heading out the next day to catch a plane and get back to America in time for school to start again. Since it was their last day, Rose and Kain were out walking in the outer part of town, enjoying the day. Or, rather, Rose was enjoying the day. Kain was walking silently next to her, there only because she was and she had dragged him out.

"You have to admit," Rose stated with a happy smile, "it does grow on you."

"Much the same way a cancer does," was the sardonic retort. She sighed, annoyed, and looked up at him.

"You so love to ruin my good mood, don't you?"

He was about to answer when they heard a car tire screech. Both looked up to see a large black van slam to a stop and a handful of men jumped out. Rose's eyes widened; she recognized one of the males as the older brother of the man who Kain had killed before she had left for college. A few of them leveled guns at the two and opened up, aiming for Kain. The master vampire made a surprised noise and collapsed slowly, knowing that it was easy to lure a person to lower his guard if they thought he was dead. The lead male, the brother, ran up to Rose and grabbed her. She pulled back and laughed at him, realizing what a fool he was. The man, angry with her, pulled back and slapped her across the face. Her face twisted with the blow and her skin was left stinging. She slowly turned on him, her eyes narrowing. No human should be that strong.

While Rose was recovering from the blow, the man dragged her to the van and threw her into it. He jumped in after her and his friends climbed in after. They slammed the door shut, and the boy's brother, obviously in charge of the whole operation, growled to the drive, "Go!" He looked back at her.

"Your friend died because he killed my brother. You, however, will suffer."

He met her angry gaze, then glanced around, realizing they weren't going anywhere. He leaned forward toward the driver.

"Hey, what the hell is going on?!"

"I don't know," the young man responded, "I'm flooring it!" Everyone looked at Rose as she laughed maliciously and settled back in a seat, buckling herself in. When she felt their eyes on her, she spat at them, _"Idiots!"_

There was an abrupt jolt as the van was pulled _backwards_, and then a moment of stillness before it was picked up into the air and heaved down the street. Rose, who had been expecting such a reaction from a very pissed-off Kain, had been the only one buckled in, and, coincidentally, the one who came through it best. When the van came to a halt, she calmly unbuckled herself, stepped carefully around the sprawled bodies—some alive, some not—and picked up the man who had hit her. She shoved the door open (or, rather, ripped it off its hinges, as the van was on its side now) and climbed out, dragging the man's moaning form behind her. She was surprised he was still alive. She jumped down and heard the body make a satisfying SMACK! as it hit the ground. Kain met her, glaring at the van and the man being dragged behind her. He ran a hand over the wounds which had just begun to heal.

"That hurts," he hissed with genuine malevolence. Rose held up the man who had started to come around.

"This one hit me. Can I have him?"

Kain's glare of hatred at the man paled the boy's skin, and a cruel smile twisted the master vampire's lips.

"Yes, I think you're about ready to feed from a living being now."

"Wha— what's going on?" the young man asked brokenly. Kain didn't answer, but let out a laugh that chilled the boy down to the marrow of his bones as Kain grabbed him from Rose's grip and led her into one of the side alleys. He twisted the boy so he was facing her and held his head to the side, exposing his neck. Rose, still broiling with rage that one so lowly would _dare_ to strike her, eagerly grabbed his shoulders, bringing her mouth near his neck. She paused, enjoying the fear that shone in his eyes and the slight little whimper that ran through his body. If she hadn't been so angry, she would have been scared of herself. Where was the human side she was supposed to possess? There was no forgiveness here; just the cold, calculating persona of one of nature's finest predators.

She gently pressed her lips to his neck and felt his fast pulse throb through her lips. It felt so tangible that she almost might roll the taste around in her mouth. She ran her teeth down his skin, scratching lightly, but not drawing blood, seeming to draw the blood hunger up with his fear. She let her lips slowly slid up his neck across his jaw, and she smiled lovingly up into his eyes, knowing he gave up his life to give her the strength she needed. The young man whimpered again, seeing that love, but knowing it was the same love that a farmer might look upon a prized sow. Rose leaned forward and nipped down his through, then paused as his pulse began to beat in her head. Her own heart sped to match it, and she let her fangs slip out into a slightly harder bite. As soon as her fangs broke the surface of his skin, blood welled up, slipping down his neck and onto her tongue. Orgasmic pleasure and burning pain raced across her body as her mouth clamped down to his neck, refusing to let go. The sweet liquor ran down her throat as her muscles shivered in pleasure. She followed unspoken and silent instincts, her fangs being used not to suck blood through, but, rather, to keep the cut in his flesh open to allow the blood to spill out into her waiting mouth. She might have been sucking at the wound, but she didn't know for sure. All she knew was it seemed the blood willingly poured into her mouth, eager to join her body and fuel her.

Slowly but surely, the blood flow grew sluggish and finally came to a stop. She released the wound and Kain dropped the body, an approving mentor-like smile on his face.

"Very good, Rose. You didn't hesitate or dive too quickly into it. You have the knack of an instinctive killer."

"That's all wonderfully said and done," she responded, her British accent becoming more heavily pronounced as the blood ran through her veins, "but I'm still hungry." She stepped over the body, pressing her body tightly up against his and fastened her lips to his. She felt his tongue lick across the blood on her lips gently, then slip between her lips, tasting the flavor of the boy. She nipped his tongue lightly, and he chuckled as he pressed her back against the wall.

"What the fu—" a voice intruded. There was the unmistakable sound of a hammer being pulled back. Rose hissed and Kain growled, looking to the imbecile who interrupted them. It was one the human males, surprisingly alive, but covered in what looked like glass rips in his skin. He pointed a gun toward them and a low snarl rumbled in the back of Rose's throat at the annoyance. Kain moved away from her and bore down on the male, looking like an appropriate harbinger of doom.

"We will kill you!" the boy managed out, terrified, but holding true to his goal. Kain merely reached out, grabbed the gun, and bent its muzzle at a bizarre, unnatural angle. With his other hand, he caught the boy up by his throat and lifted him into the air.

"Child, I don't know who you work for, nor do I care, but you _do not_ THREATEN ME! You have no position, no possible power that could stop me should I choose to do something!" He jerked the boy's body toward his face, and Rose idly thought to herself that he reminded her very much of a rag-doll in Kain's grasp.

"Listen to me very closely, child," Kain hissed, "I won't you to take a message to these people you work for. Tell them that they will _leave me alone_, and I won't hunt them down across the face of this planet to torture them for a thousand years. They are daring to attack a much better predator than they are, and I am not about to let them have the audacity to challenge me! Now, get out of my sight!" He threw the boy away and he smashed into the windshield of a car across the street. Kain turned to Rose and shoved her back against the wall, kissing her roughly. She responded to the pleasure and the pain in kind, intuitively finally understanding why some people liked pain. She knew now it had to do with pushing limits, not taking pleasure from the pain itself.

"I thought you weren't going to kill him," she murmured into his ear as he bit at her throat.

"I didn't," he responded. "He should live through that." He bit her lips lightly, not making any effort to avoid piercing the skin.

"My wonderful little fledgling."

"My lord and mentor," she answered, knowing whether or not she'd admit it, that was exactly what he was to her.

Rose dragged herself out of bed. It was early morning, and she was preparing herself to get back onto a normal 'wake up in the morning, not evening' routine. She walked, or stumbled, more accurately, down the stairs and plopped down in her normal chair next to her father who was listlessly glancing through the newspaper. Lara entered the room and leaned over Raziel's shoulder, eyes quickly scanning the pages. Raziel glanced over at her.

"Not hungry?"

Rose shook her head in a negation. "It's too early for me to think about food."

In actuality, she could still feel the blood of the young man pulsing through her veins, and the hunger that rested in her belly was not for normal food. She wondered if devouring souls would cause this kind of hunger in her as well. It rather scared her when she began to think on a more sadistic thought process, but she had learned not to worry about it. After all, she was only one-third compassionate and caring being. Most of her being was composed of two of the strongest hunters in all of existence.

The door opened behind her and Kain walked in, looking the same as always. To anyone who didn't know him, they'd think he was constantly awake and moving. Rose, though, had become practiced when dealing with him, and she knew by the slight twist in his walk and the small curls in his silver-white hair that he, too, had just awoken. The tightness around the corner of his eyes indicated that he was not happy with being up this early, either.

"Well, what's this?" Lara's British accent broke into the silence. She was looking at the newspaper.

" 'Young man killed in violent death'," she read off, " 'after having apparently been thrown off a building into a car. Police suspect rival gangs, as a van was found nearby with several dead bodies'." She looked up at Kain and Rose as the two exchanged a mutual look.

"You two wouldn't happen to have anything to do with that, would you?" Lara inquired.

"Of course not, Lara," Kain responded with a slight smirk. "Do you really think I'd do something like that?"

She looked at him a moment, then cursed. "Damn it, Kain, I told you I didn't want you corrupting her until she's older."

"But it's so much fun," he answered with a malicious grin. Lara glared at him and Rose sighed.

"They're talking about me like I'm not here again."

"This happens often with your mother and Kain," Raziel assured her. "They seem to share some sort of mental link."

Rose excused herself after a while longer and headed upstairs to finish packing. Within an hour, Rose and Kain were out the door after Rose said her good-byes, and they were finally on their way back to the States. Her plane trip passed much like the first, except she cut out the boring first part and spent her time with her master vampire. After the flight finally came into Massachusetts (and the trip seemed _much_ shorter to Rose), she happily got off, knowing she would finally get to go back to her apartment and sleep. It was only ten in the morning here, so she could actually make up for some of the sleep that she lost before she went to school the next day. She got her things all back to her apartment, knowing Kain had gone back to his place already. She dropped her stuff on the floor, telling herself she'd pick it up later, and had just flopped down face-first on her bed when the phone rang. Cursing, she reached over and picked it up.

"Oh, you are home!" came Diana's cheerful voice.

"Oof, I just got home," Rose answered.

"Wonderful! Come on! We want to go bowling, and go out for dinner, and maybe go see a movie! You need to come."

"But I just got home!" Rose whimpered.

"Ah, who cares! Get your butt out of bed and get down to Main Street and meet us. After all, today's the last day of the break, and we haven't gotten to see you all day. Oh, yeah, and Becca says something about getting a computer game you wanted to play."

"Blood Rayne?"

"Yeah, that's it, but she's threatening to tell you the end of it and spoil it for you if you don't get out here."

"I suppose I can't take a rain check, can I?" Rose inquired.

"Nope!"

"Fine, I'll be there in about five minutes."

As she quickly changed clothes, she glared in the direction of Kain's apartment.

'Lucky bastard,' she growled to herself mentally. '_He_ gets to sleep in!'


	13. Second Intermission!

^-^ Looky, everyone! Isn't it CUTE?! I have FLAMERS!! I have taken the liberty of posting some of the inane comments made here for my 100+ readers to read and laugh at!

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????!!!!! 2003-05-24 1 _Anonymous__ Let me tell you something. I and a few others are here to give you some NEW kind of reviews. And we don't plan on STOPPING!_

Not God 2003-06-05 15 _Anonymous__ Tomb Rider and Soul Reaver together...DEAR GOD NO! NO! NO! This is the work of SATAN! The Gods will strike you down for this!_

Hears Johnny! 2003-06-05 1 _Anonymous__ YOU WILL BE PUT TO DEATH FOR HAVING WRITTEN SUCH A STUPID FUCKING STORY AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!_

Isn't this great? They're so silly! I love 'em! Well, my little anonymous reviewer, you wanted my attention, you got it. And you're about to get EVERYTHING that goes with it! First of all, you say "we", but I have seen NOTHING to indicate that there's more than one of you. After all, I have no emails or IMs to go on that there are more than one of you. If anything, I'm guessing from your writing style and your choice of talking about God and the Devil that you are male, a Christian or Catholic, and have probably never been laid in your life, and if you have, it's because you paid for it.

Also, your reference to Satan, and then to the gods indicates your lack of religious knowledge. Even if some god were to walk down and smite me for having fun and writing a story over one hundred people enjoy, it would only be YHWH (should you have the intelligence to figure out who that is), as no other god has a counter-part like Satan. Even the Egyptian, Greek, and Native American gods and spirits all had a reason and a purpose (besides tempting humans) in being in the Underworld for having risen against their creators.

And being put to death? Oh please. There are worse stories written, and there are better. No one has ever been brought to bodily harm for writing a story. As for sending it into Crystal Dynamics and your insult about it not being good enough, of course I didn't send it in, you nitwit. I have no intention of doing so until Legacy of Kain: Defiance comes out. And if my story's good enough to get posted on Nosogth.net, it's far too good for the likes of you.

You say writing this story is a waste of my time, but really, who's the one actually wasting time? I'm at least having fun doing it, and I'm entertaining over one hundred people. That's enough for me. You are the one taking your time to try and annoy me, which isn't really working. I find it more amusing than anything. If you'll notice, most of your reviews have gone down. I left a few up so the other readers can see them and laugh at them. At this point, I'd like to reprint something written by our own beloved Griz with complete permission from her to do so:

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Dear Flamers and possible flamers,

Before you think of writing a nasty-gram to an author simply because you don't like one of their stories, please remember that if you don't like it, YOU DON'T HAVE TO REVIEW IT. But if you feel you must, instead of saying "this is shit my granny can right better than you", try saying what you thought sucked and what we, the authors, could do to change it and make it better.

Secondly, if you're just trying to piss people off, consider this: It doesn't work very well.

Furthermore, all you're doing is showing how immature you are. Instead of flaming the crap out of someone because you don't like their work, why don't you try being calm and rational and say WHY you thought it sucked.

Oh, and, don't flame people like me, I forward flames I get to all my friends and then we go on AIM and laugh at how dumb flaming is. And we dissect them, too. XD!

I happen to love to do the same thing. It's only your time you're wasting, not mine. Plus, you spelled **here's** wrong in **here's Johnny!** You spelled it **Hears**.

Anyway, onto some of the review responses:

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Lilith- As for my influence on you with my writing, I have only one thing to say: HA HA! Okay, so that was two. So what?

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Bloodthirsty- I always did love your little prophecies! I rather miss them, actually.

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The Holy Beergut- Don't you worry your pretty little head about that uncles idea. It has been assimilated into the mess that is my muse's and my brain. And that's all I'm going to tell you.

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Lunatic Pandora- the trade? Well, that'll be a while. As you know, nothing in Nosgoth ever lets those poor men (Kain and Raz) have any time to themselves. *grins maliciously*

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Shadow Knight- No, you will never have a girlfriend any time soon. If you want to have a happy, healthy relationship, you will find out that the woman is ALWAYS right. It's just the way it works.

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SVP- I honestly have no idea if that's Kairan and Meto in the background for that pic. I'll have to ask her.

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Psycho Virus- NEED MORE ARTWORK!!! But as to your review *grin* there's a reason Lara and Raz haven't conceived another child just yet. That will be explained in the next story.

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Concept of a Demon- Yes, the salvation of Nosgoth WILL be worked back into the story. This story is just a kind of filler that's going into Rose's character and her relationship with Kain.

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Tremerid- Thank you very much for the compliment, and I'm glad you've been with the story through its entirety. As for Rose and her corruption, let's just say Kain is going to do his best to squish that annoying little human/conscientious side of her. She's going to do her best to keep it alive. And that's all I'm going to say. And yes, that is a pretty perverse thing to say, but I appreciate the gesture. ^^

Short, I know, but I really wanted to get back into the flow of writing the story. So, follow for the next chapter…… (And I hopefully won't be that long again.)


	14. OVERNIGHT!

The collection of girls sat around a table at a Japanese food restaurant. Rose was noticeably drifting off and on in sleep. Becca and Kairan took turns poking Rose in the side and tickling her to wake her up. She hissed at them playfully a few times, but didn't really hold any true malevolent intent toward the two. Mischievous, yes, but not truly malevolent. She'd have to talk to Kain to figure out how to get them back.

They had been served dinner and were near finishing it. Becca was sitting next to Rose, Kairan across from her, Diana next to Kairan, and Metowaka at the head of the table. Diana suddenly started grinning impishly.

"Hey, Meto," she began in a singsong voice. "You'd do absolutely _anything_ to prove you're a Brandon Lee fan, wouldn't you?"

"Um . . ." She looked at Diana with expected suspicion. "Depends on what it is."

"I dare you to drink that entire bottle of soy sauce to prove that you love Brandon Lee."

"Why would I want to do that?"

Diana gasped and turned to the other girls. "I don't think she loves Brandon Lee anymore!!"

Kairan and Becca made gasps of mock-surprise as well, while Rose blinked blankly. Metowaka's eyes widened.

"I didn't say that!" She grabbed the soy sauce, flipped the top off without hesitation, and held it up into the air.

"This one's for you, Brandon, baby!" She tipped it back and swallowed the contents without a break for air. Rose shot a look at Diana.

"That was mean."

"No, it was funny."

"FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP! FIRE IT UP!" she cried as she slammed the bottle down on the table. She glared crossly at Diana a moment, then her face pinched in on itself as she put a hand over her stomach.

"Uhhh, I don't feel very good. I don't think that soy sauce agreed with me."

"Ohh, poor Meto," Rose sighed, trying to hold back laughter.

"Ah, I'll be okay."

"Hey," Kairan stated. "We all spent the day together and had dinner out. You know what this means!"

Becca, Metowaka, Diana and she all exchanged a look, then shouted simultaneously, "OVERNIGHT!"

"Oh no," Rose groaned. "Look, guys, I just got home—"

Sensing her about to back out of it, Becca leaned over and put an arm around the crossbreed's shoulders.

"And since none of us have seen Rose's apartment, we're going to have it there."

"Now, wait a minute!"

"YAY!" the other girls cheered. Rose let her head sink down into her hands.

"No rest for the wicked, it seems," Rose sighed.

The drive back was rather silent, broken every once in a while by a groan from Metowaka who proclaimed loudly that she shouldn't have had the soy sauce and glared nonstop at Diana the way back. Rose, who was in the driver's seat, sighed deeply and shook her head.

Climbing up the stairs, she noticed light pouring out from under the door. Rose winced; Kain had apparently come to see where she had gone. She unlocked the door, her friends behind her making a noisy ruckus. She pushed open the door and swung a hand in for the other girls. They walked in curiously.

"Not bad, Rose," Kairan stated, looking around. She smirked at the framed parchments of papyrus with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Greek paintings.

"Picked up on your mother's decorative habits, I take it?" she inquired. Rose glanced up where she was looking and blushed slightly.

"It's what I grew up around."

"Hello, Rose," a voice greeted from the hall. She winced and looked up to see Kain striding toward her.

"Hullo, Kain," she responded. Diana and Kairan gave her sharp looks, noticing the missing 'uncle,' and Metowaka would have done the same had she been able to keep her mind off her stomach.

"Uh," the crossbreed continued, looking at her friends, "you know Becca already, but this is Diana and Kairan, and the one behind them is Metowaka—"

Said girl suddenly made a strange groaning noise and leaned away, the soy sauce forcing its way back into her mouth. Rose, recognizing the girl's distress, indicated quickly to Kairan where the bathroom was. The older girl nodded and pulled Metowaka into the bathroom to rid her stomach of the contents that made it so unhappy. Becca headed in after the two girls worriedly, and Rose looked at Diana accusingly. The other girl had the good grace to look embarrassed.

"Diana, would you please go out to Becca's car and get the bottle of soda water she carries around with her."

"All right." The young woman raced out the door, and Rose winced at her stained carpet and sighed. Kain had been watching the proceedings, a neutral expression on his face, with one slightly raised eyebrow. Seeing Rose's look, he chuckled slightly.

"Rose, it's simply a carpet. And besides, this is a minor inconvenience compared to trying to get dried blood out of tapestries. Now that is a challenge." He glanced down at the mess, frowned lightly, and snapped his fingers. She felt a ripple of power, and the muss was gone as if it had never been there before. She grinned up at him, wishing she could say things she knew she couldn't with three of her friends in the apartment. Realizing Diana was going to ask questions when she got back, Rose hastily ran into the kitchen, got a couple of paper towels, wetted them down, and proceeded to get the carpet wet so it looked like she had cleaned it. Diana pushed the door open and came back in, looking mildly annoyed.

"I couldn't find it. Becca has so much junk back there that . . ." She trailed off in a helpless shrug, then saw the carpet was clean.

"It's okay, Diana," Rose responded, "I got it clean easily enough. It was needed." She turned back to the master vampire who watched silently, not really sure how to handle the situation. Demons and creatures from other worlds he knew what to do with; death threats and blackmail were child's play. But he had no idea what to do with four teenage girls who had never known the threat of a vampire or any higher predator, for that matter. Rose looked up at him and shrugged apologetically.

"They invited themselves over for the night. And knowing them," she shrugged. "I will most likely see you tomorrow, Kain. They're going to be here all night and are going to be loud and obnoxious."

"Hey!" came three voices, two in the bathroom, one behind her where Diana was standing. A corner of Kain's mouth twitched, but he kept a straight face and nodded a good-bye to Rose before heading out of the apartment and shutting the door softly. Rose shook her head and sighed, wondering what hell was going to show up that night.

That hell introduced itself to Rose three hours and half a bottle of 7-up for Metowaka to drink to settle her stomach later in the form of "Truth or Dare." Rose, who had never played the game before, found her enhanced senses working for her, as she could pick up on the increasing heart beat of quickened breath when he friends were nervous or excited. She had grasped the rules (or, nearly lack there of) relatively quickly, and had been amused when Kairan had objected before they started playing, "And no daring to tell the truth, okay?" They had been playing the game for the last hour or so, and Rose had tried out a few dares, but mostly stuck to truth as cautious newbies tended to. Finally, the game jumped to Diana asking the questions. She looked around at her circle of friends, deciding whom to torment. He eyes lit up as she settled on her target.

"Rose! Truth or dare!"

Rose groaned, inwardly hiding a smile. "Truth."

Diana grinned malevolently and Rose's eyes widened, realizing this time it looked like she was going to be up a creek without a paddle.

"Is Kain really your blood-related Uncle?"

Rose stared at the girl in shock before flopping back on her back, shaking her head. Ooohh boy, she was in trouble. She sat back up and grinned at Diana.

"That's kind of a silly question, Diana! Do you _really_ think I'd call him Uncle if he wasn't? Come on. I grew up calling him that."

Diana eyed her, but nodded, accepting it, until Becca pointed out, "You didn't exactly answer the question, Rose."

_'SHIT!'_ Rose swore to herself, glaring at Becca. Diana leaned forward, eyes narrowing. Even Metowaka and Kairan were watching intently.

"That you didn't," Diana agreed. "Come on, Rose, a yes or no is the only answering I'm taking."

Rose growled to herself slightly, and looked at the girls. They all stared at her, and the crossbreed realized she was not getting out of this. Plus, she was a horrible liar to people she liked and trusted, so she knew if she lied, she wouldn't get away with it.

"No," she finally stated shortly. Kairan grabbed the pillow she had been leaning on and smacked Rose over the head with it.

"I thought so!"

Rose leaned back to evade the blow and decided quite firmly that from now on she'd be picking 'dare' as the next question would inevitably if she had slept with him or not. And that was just one place she did _not _want to go with her friends even if they wanted to know the answer to it.


	15. Everyone Likes to Pick on Rose

'So . . . tired . . .' Rose felt her head slip down onto her arms as sleep crept over her mind. Abruptly, a loud explosion burst in front of her nose. Rose let out a strangled "EEP!" and looked up to see Kain standing in front of her desk, smirking, a pile of books sitting on the edge of her desk a few inches away from her head.

"Good morning, Miss Croft," Kain stated plainly. Rose yawned widely, made a huge show of slapping her face, and sat up straight, blinking rapidly.

"Good morning, Professor Kain."

"Sleep well?"

"As a matter of fact, no I didn't."

"Wonderful. Now, please tell us what you know about dragons."

Rose winced, but went over the little bit she knew and had heard. Class seemed to drag by, and finally the bell rang. Everyone stood to get up and Kain called out over the students, "Rose, if you'd please stay after class."

Everyone looked around curiously and at Rose, but didn't question. Rose waited in front of Kain's desk as everyone left. After the door had shut, Kain led her to his office and snapped his fingers. She felt the ripple of magic and saw, in his office, a small cot.

"Get some sleep, Rose," he told her, turning away to head back out. "I'll wake you when your next class starts."

She gratefully plopped down across the cot and felt sleep return quickly.

"Gods, you'd think sleep is a lover I rejected last night," she mumbled almost coherently. Kain laughed.

"For the Dark Gods' sakes, Rose, sleep."

"You know people have begun the rumors again," Rose sighed sleepily. "As soon as I broke up with my 'boyfriend'."

Kain sighed in annoyance. "I know, Rose, now sleep before I use one of my Gifts and force you to sleep."

She chuckled darkly. "So nice to know you're concerned about my well-being." She slipped into unconsciousness as sleep refused to be pushed away again. Kain looked to the stack of papers that had to be graded, then shook his head and sat down on the cot, pulling Rose's head into his lap. He let his fingers trail down her hair gently, a blank expression settling on his face as his eyes unfocused as he mused quietly to himself on what he would have to do when he returned to Nosgoth.

Rose threw the last pom-pom into the closet and sighed deeply. The extra little nap during lunch had done her good, and she had actually been able to lead the cheerleading practice because of it. She made a mental note to thank Kain later, as practice had gone well, though they hadn't been able to distract the football team since it wasn't their day to practice. She was in the equipment locker putting the last stuff away for the day.

Suddenly, she heard footsteps at the door. She straightened and turned to see one of the football players walk in slowly, cautiously looking around. When he spotted Rose, he smiled, and were she not already flushed from the workout, she would have been blushing. His smile was perfect, brilliant and melt-in-your-mouth sexy. She shook her head abruptly to rid herself of such thoughts.

"Hey, Rose."

Rose smiled as she recognized him; he was Damian, one of the lead quarterbacks. He was, as the cheerleading team put it, incredibly edible. And also single.

Aforementioned football player shut the locker door gently behind him and walked toward Rose. Rose eyed him worriedly, beginning to not like the situation. The other girls would have loved to be locked in a room with him.

"I've got a kind of query for you," he continued, moving toward her. Rose stepped back, keeping a five-foot space between them.

"And what's that?" she returned. She felt the wall hit her back and knew she was backed up into a corner. Damian placed his hands on either side of her face above her shoulders.

"Are you interested in going out sometime and getting a bite to eat?"

She looked around out of the corner of her eyes for an escape as she responded, "Actually, that's quite all right, but, uh, I'd just be a bore and I have some pretty eccentric tastes—"

"Souls and blood isn't in short supply, after all," he interrupted calmly. Rose stopped shifting and looked back at him cautiously. A malicious smile spread across his lips as his eyes turned gold and his figure grew to the proportion of Kain. Rose stared at him a moment before sighing in irritation.

"Couldn't have told me, huh?"

"No, I had to have some fun with it."

He swiftly grabbed her and pulled her into his embrace, his lips pressing down on hers as his magic shifted around him, returning him to the form of the young football player. He pressed her down, his fingers hungrily running up under her shirt across her skin. She eagerly grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head, kissing down across his chest.

About half an hour later, Rose looked up at Kain when he chuckled.

"Did I happen to mention that once the cheerleaders saw me coming in after you, they went into a small room with a peephole into here?"

As Rose stared up at him in shock, he continued, "By tomorrow, it'll be an open secret that you're sleeping with the head quarterback for the team. Me."

"But what about when you shifted—"

He just laughed, interrupting her. "Already altered their memory, Rose. You're still one step behind me."

"Yeah, well at least I'm starting to catch on to your plans."

He just smiled down at her like that was the most inane and stupid, but cute, thing she had ever said. She looked away from him.

"Hey, I had to try."

"Rose, in your own way, you are quite obliviously cute." He brought her face up and kissed her. "You will never be able to catch on my plans."

"Ooh."

The first few weeks back in school passed without incident, and the rumors surrounding Kain and her sleeping together dropped off as she continued seeing "Damian." After three weeks, though, Rose's effective 'archenemy' decided that it was about time to put Rose back into hot water again. She, along with several of the harpies of the school, started putting out rumors that while Rose was dating Damian, she was sleeping with Kain on the side.

Rose and Kain were both sitting her apartment, and she was informing him of the new rumors going around. They had attracted her way too much in the ways of unwanted attention.

Kain snorted in contempt. "I'm insulted. You're only sleeping with me on the side?"

"Agh!" Rose smacked a hand to her forehead. "That's not helping!"

He grinned impishly a moment, then his expression switched to a serious one as he pondered, "So, it seems 'Professor Kain' is going to need to have some sort of woman he's intimate with."

Rose's expression darkened and she rubbed her nose up under his chin, nibbling his neck slightly. He moved her face away from his neck, smirking down at her.

"Well, Rose, I suppose this means I'm going to have to teach you another vampiric ability."

She blinked at him, surprised. "Why?"

"Well, you obviously wouldn't be happy with me sleeping with another woman, would you?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. Then it's simply time for me to teach you 'guise'."

"Guise?" she questioned. He pushed her back, and touched over her sternum.

"The power resonates here, locked behind your ribs. You can feel it if you reach for it. It feels rather like thin plastic that stays in any shape you put it."

She closed her eyes and nodded, understanding what he was saying.

"You can take hold of that energy and swirl it about yourself like a cloak, then mold it as you will. With it, you can make yourself look like anyone or anything. And using this, we are going to make you a new identity to become a teacher."

"A teacher?" Rose's eyes opened in surprise. "Of what?"

He leaned above her, a complacent smile on his face, waiting for her to realize it. Rose blinked up at him in confusion.

"Rose, think about your mother."

"Eh? . . . Oh. An archeologist."

"Mm-hmm. You know enough from your mother to easily pose as a teacher here in that field."

"I suppose . . ."

"Now, back to training."

"Agh!"

The weeks continued to progress, and within a few nights, Rose was capable of holding the guise for a near indefinite amount of time. It was an older image of herself with less of her father in her features, and more of her mother. Diana and Becca ended up in her class, and kept insisting that Rose should meet her, but due to many good circumstances and interruptions by Kain, both vampire and crossbreed were capable of keeping such a disastrous situation from ever being in the process of being crafted.

As far as everyone knew, Ms. McKintrey was a woman who had just moved for the semester to the U.S. and had met Professor Kain in England. It was public knowledge that the two had . . . other relationships going besides a teacher-to-coworker one, and the rumors about Rose quickly died out.

Short of occasional breakdowns from Rose on the way to just too much homework, she managed to pull of the entire ordeal well. Kain didn't let up on his homework for her, though, but to Rose's annoyance.

A week before spring break finally rolled around, and during one lunch, Rose's friends all pounced on her.

"Rose, we've been thinking," Meto began. Rose looked at the looks she was being given and winced.

"Uh . . . about what?"

"We've decided what we want to do for spring vacation."

"And let me guess," Rose put in, "I'm being volunteered."

"Pretty much, yeah," Kairan agreed.

"We're going on a road trip!" Diana cried happily.

"Okay," Rose sighed. "How long?"

"Two weeks," was the prompt reply.

"All righty. I just have to go get packed. We'll be leaving at the end of school I take it."

"Of course!"

Rose sighed deeply, shaking her head, and wondered what was going to go wrong on this trip.


	16. Pranks vs Manipulation and Disguise

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Okay**, Author's Note**: I've been getting WAY too many bloody reviews about "why isn't there more action in this?" or "why isn't this story more like the first two?" For crying out loud, people, the genre on this story specifically states this is a "Humor/Romance." If there was going to be action in it, it would say action/adventure, not humor or romance. Yes, this story IS boring for those of you demanding action. I'm sorry if that's not your particular cup of tea, but it's not like I didn't warn people.

On a more soft note, if you are patient with this story (and it is almost over, believe me, I'M actually getting bored of it), the four-- Raz, Lara, Kain, and Rose-- all go to Nosgoth, and I promise that story's genre will be back to "Action/Adventure." This story (which ended up being a hell of a lot longer than I expected) was supposed to go into Rose's relationship with Kain, and it went . . . awry.

I promise, there WILL BE action later on in this story, and it WILL be taking place not in this chapter, but the chapter after it. This story will go out with a bang; a big one. New characters will be introduced to the story who will make conflict inevitable (but I'm not going to tell you who--- would give away too good of a surprise). So, if you have faith in me and continue keeping up with the reading, then thank you. But if you decide you've had enough of the story, well, it's a damn shame you're going to be missing it.

*DragonSeer*

"We're off to see the wizarddd, the wonderful wizard of Ozzzz . . ."

"Shut-up, Diana!" three voices shouted in tandem. Rose, who was driving, just laughed. Diana, who had called shotgun, looked into the back of the car and stuck her tongue out at the other three girls.

"Fine then." Diana fell silent a moment, then started singing, "This is the song that never ends . . . yes, it goes on and on my friendssss . . ."

"That's it!"

The song abruptly ended with shouts of protest and yelps of pain, and Rose could see a scuffle break out in the corner of her eye. A moment later, Becca was sitting shotgun and Diana had been shoved into the back. Kairan and Metowaka were both keeping her quiet by tickling her. Becca laughed at Diana's plight a moment before flipping open her map. Becca was the Holy Grail of drivers everywhere: she could read (and fold) a map. She just didn't often advertise the fact.

"Okay, so that nifty bar that Dane mentioned is about fifty miles north of here. There's supposedly a motel near it."

Rose shook her head, sighing. "You all are still planning on stopping at the pub?"

"Are you still planning on staying sober?" Kairan shot back, grinning.

"Hey, look!" Metowaka broke in. She pointed to the side of the road. Walking slowly along was a hitchhiker.

"Ooh, he's cute," Diana purred, Kairan and Metowaka distracted from tickling her. She glanced up at everyone.

"Road trip prank #12, anyone?!"

Kairan leaned forward into the front of the car, grinning. "Okay, Rose, we're going to pick him up. Then . . ."

After furious whispering, the young man had finally caught up to where they waited. He grinned his thanks to the girls as he settled into the car. Rose obligingly pulled back out into the road, and continued. She knew picking up hitchhikers could be dangerous to normal humans, but Rose figured if this guy tried to take a piece out of one of her friends, she'd simply take a piece out of _him_.

Eyes on the road, Rose was alerted of the moving plan by giggling coming from the back. She glanced into the rear-view mirror to see the girls were tugging at said cute hitchhiker's clothes. Rose shared a look with Becca, and the human girl grinned and indicated for Rose to quickly pull over. Laughing maniacally, the girls in the back quickly opened the door and shoved the guy out before swiftly slamming the door shut again.

"Drive!" Kairan called out. Rose twisted the wheel and slammed on the gas pedal, causing the car to go streaking away. The girls were all nearly collapsing in hysterical laughter.

"That was _so_ mean," Rose managed out around her laughter.

"Yeah, it was, but even you have to admit it was funny!" Diana shot back.

In the background, the hitchhiker stood and crossed his arms over his chest, watching the car until it vanished around the corner. The male's form shifted and altered, growing taller and the shoulders broader, and Kain stood, shaking his head slightly. That certainly hadn't worked. It would seem he would have to try another course of action . . .

The girls were still snickering a good twenty miles down the line. It probably wouldn't have taken them that long, but whenever one of the girls looked at another, they started cracking up, which would inevitably end with all the girls laughing again.

"That was great," Kairan sighed happily.

"Ooh, even cuter," Metowaka suddenly stated, obviously sidetracked. Kairan, Becca and Diana all looked where she did, and nodded or gave other sounds of agreement.

"Definitely."

"Very cute."

"Yummy."

"What?" Rose inquired, then dared a glance over at the side of the road. Meandering slowly along was a young man about their age, a guitar case over his shoulder. He had long strands of white hair, the snowy color that bleaching and then dyeing hair brought.

"Can we stop and pick him up, Rose?" Metowaka asked, leaning forward up to be level with the driver.

"Only if we aren't going to play a mean trick on this one."

"Not on this one," Diana protested. "He's way too cute."

"All right then."

She easily slowed and stopped next to the young man, and Becca rolled the window down.

"Wanna lift?" she inquired easily. He looked up and grinned.

"That would be great!"

He climbed into the car and Rose set the car back to rolling across the road smoothly.

"Does anyone else want to drive?" she inquired wearily. A chorus of "No!"s were he answer, and she sighed deeply.

'Yes,' Rose grumbled to herself mentally, 'they'd rather stare at the new boy toy.'

Becca leaned around in her seat and looked back at their new guest.

"And who might you be?"

He smiled dazzlingly at her. "The name's Magnus. Magnus Williams."

"And what do you do, Magnus?" Diana inquired. In the driver's seat, Rose groaned silently and her fingers shifted and tightened around the steering wheel. Small talk. She hated small talk.

Magnus, in answer to the question, pulled around his guitar and strummed a few chords on it, smiling quietly.

"Where are you headed?" Kairan popped in.

"California."

"Why is that?"

"Because I've heard how beautiful the beaches were. I was walking, as I currently possess no car."

The girls continued asking other little small questions, learning a little bit about his motivations, but he was amazingly careful about giving them anything solid. Finally, Metowaka broached a new line of questions.

"Can I make a request?" Metowaka threw in.

"Of course."

"Would you play something?"

He chuckled deeply. "I have the guitar out, don't I?" He closed his eyes slightly and let his fingers drift down to the chords, then began a few small tunes of popular songs around the area. He even began to sing a few of them, and the girls stared at him with wide eyes; he had a gorgeous voice.

"Wonderful," Becca complimented when he was done, "but do you know anything . . . different? Like, more exotic?" He thought a moment, then smiled again.

"Yes, I do."

His fingers moved across the strings slowly, coaxing a mournful tune from the instrument, the sounds seeming to cry out in gentle pain. Rose recognized it instantly; it was a Nosogthic song. She glanced up into the rear-view mirror sharply and the young man lifted his eyes to meet hers through the mirror. For just a moment, his amber-brown eyes shifted to that of a fierce golden. She shook her head and focused back on the road, but the music filled her ears. She could hear the moment coming where someone would have started singing, and when "Magnus" threw his voice into the song, Rose's was next to his.

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"The sun at last

Has moved far past,

And loving stars sing out

But night's fair breeze

Warns through the eves

That life's blood is in doubt

Tread soft, love dear

Night holdst thee fear

And smiles with dark maw

Breathe care, fair maid

From the vampire's raid

As the stars whereupon withdraw."

The girls looked at Rose curiously, expressions of confusion written on their face.

"How'd you know the words, Rose?" Kairan finally asked.

"Ah . . . it's a lullaby my father used to sing to me," she answered slowly. She had never really given the tune much consideration before.

With Rose lost in thought, the other girls kept requesting songs from Magnus. In a much shorter time than they would have expected, the girls had arrived in front of the little bar Becca had been talking about. Magnus graciously thanked them, but decided it was best if he headed out toward the motel. He had to split off from the girls and head a different way. The girls moaned their disappointment after he had left their sight.

"Hey was cute, too," Metowaka sighed from the barstool she sat at. Becca laughed.

"Yeah, he was. But oh well. Barkeep!"

As Becca ordered her drink, Rose heard the door creak open behind them. It was a bar, so that wasn't too strange, but the same instinct that had made her turn to see Kain in England screamed for her to look. She glanced over her shoulder to see four men dressed in tight leather, an almost visible sign of 'bad-ass, do not mess with me' above them. The lead man pulled out a pistol and shot it up into the air once, and it was met with confused curses and little screams of protest.

"Good-evening, ladies and gentlemen," he stated once silence had stated. "You will be joining us for drinks tonight as our hostages."

"Ah shit," Rose swore softly to herself.


	17. Trouble with Tribbles, er, Roses

A/N: Hey, everyone, I have a question. Do you think I should actually invest in Paypal? I was thinking about getting it, but I don't think I'll bother if there aren't any people interested in bribing me to continue writing. ^_^ *hint, hint*

"Hey, Rose," Diana began. "Truth or dare?"

"Oh come on!" Rose groaned. The girls were sitting at a table, the rest of the patrons having been shoved into tables near them. The four men were at the bar and were chatting lightly.

"This is not the time, Diana."

"Hey, I'm trying to lighten the mood. Truth or dare?"

Rose growled. "Truth."

"Is Kain a vampire?"

Rose fell out of her seat with a thump and swore softly. One of the men glanced over her way and narrowed his eyes, but he chose to ignore her as she slid back up into her seat.

"A vampire?!" she hissed quietly. "Where did you get that idea?!"

Kairan grinned. "Actually, we followed him out on one of his feedings. We already know the answer, but we thought we'd let you know that we were aware of it."

"Why were you guys following him?"

"It was during our fangirl days," Metowaka answered.

"You were part of that?"

"For a while, yeah. But then we found out he was your uncle, and it just seemed weird to us to stalk the uncle of our friend."

"Uh . . . thanks, I think," Rose sighed.

"Although," Becca commented as she raised her drink, "this does answer our question on whether or not you're related to him. You certainly can't be related to a vampire, right?"

"Well, that depends on how you mean related . . ." Rose responded hesitantly.

"So, how did he become your uncle?" Diana inquired.

"He . . . knew my father, and so was voted into the position of uncle."

"Hey, quiet you five!" one of the men snapped at the girls. They quickly fell silent under the glare.

The doors opened as Magnus walked calmly into the bar. He glanced around at the place, eyebrows knit together before one of the men in leather aimed the pistol at him and indicated for him to take a seat with the other bar-goers. He slid into the booth next to Rose.

"This is a rather crimp in your road trip idea, isn't it, Rose?" he chuckled. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Yes, I am aware of that."

"It seems anytime you go out, you attract this kind of attention, don't you?"

"Oh shut-up," she sighed.

"Back to talking about Kain," Metowaka broke in.

"Ask him yourself," Rose answered, pointing to Magnus. She met his annoyed gaze and shrugged.

"They figured out what you are."

"Oh did they?" He chuckled in amusement and looked at the girls. "Well, as long as you don't tell anyone under penalty of death, I won't have to kill you. Agreed?"

The girls were staring at him with wide eyes, but nodded silently. Rose laughed at their expressions and "Magnus" looked around the room. He leaned toward Rose to speak quietly to her.

"You start getting the humans out of here. I'm going to go keep those particularly stupid mortals busy while you do that."

He shifted slightly in his seat, making sure none of the ordinary mortals were watching before shifting back to teacher Kain. Rose heard muffled gasps of surprise from her friends and watched Kain give them a cruel smirk. Rose waved a hand at them.

"Get used to that. He does it a lot."

"Rose."

"Gotcha." She waited till he had stood and slid passed him toward the other patrons of the bar. Kain stalked up to the men who were leaning against the bar. The lead man looked up at him and his eyes narrowed in anger.

Rose, on the other hand, had begun to whisper to people to quietly move out the back way. As she whispered her plans to the people, and all-out rush for the backdoor had almost exploded, but Rose had been able to maintain control with a very angry glare in the direction of the people in the back. Under the crossbreed's strange yellow-green eyes, the humans had shuffled quietly and settled back down. Becca and Kairan had currently disappeared, taking a small group of people out. Metowaka and Diana waited impatiently at the edge of the crowd for the two to get back so they could take their charges. They had gotten a third of the patrons out before the situation near the bar exploded.

"What the hell are you doing up here?" the tallest man demanded of Kain as the vampire walked toward them slowly. "And when the hell did you get here?"

"I've been here for some time," he answered, a small cruel smile on his lips.

"Get back to the rest of them," the leather-wearing man growled, waving the pistol threateningly. Kain's smile softened into a quite, malevolent 'I know something you don't.'

"I rather think I won't."

"What?" The man turned to him, eyebrows knitting together. Before, this white-haired annoyance had been merely a small pain; now he was becoming far too obnoxious for his own good. The man moved to stand in front of Kain.

"What do you mean, you don't think you will?"

"Exactly what I said," Kain answered, that same smile still on his face. "I simply don't like you. And I refuse to listen to orders of creatures inferior to me."

The tall thug pulled the hammer back on the pistol and brought it up in front of Kain's face.

"Why are you being such a dipshit?" the man sighed, but there was a growl in the tone of his voice to indicate his growing anger. "I'm the one with the pistol, I'm the one with the back-up, and you are just a pretty boy without any means of standing up to me. So what the hell is this? Some kind of 'dramatic hero' bullshit? It won't do you any fuckin' good at all, you know. You are not a hero, and you are not getting out, so go back, sit down, and shut the fuck up."

Kain's expression had started as quietly amused at the boy's rant, but as the human had continued, the master vampire's expression had slowly bled from amused to a strong disgust and contempt. He had decided he'd taken enough of the boy when the thug shoved the pistol underneath his nose demanding, "I have a pistol and can kill you. Does that mean a thing to you?!"

Kain glanced over to the side of the room out of the corner of his eye and saw that the girls had filed everyone out. He felt a millisecond of annoyance as he spotted all five girls peeking around a booth watching, but decided it didn't really matter. He looked down at the human and snorted.

"You foolish, ignorant human," he growled deeply. He reached up, grabbed the pistol, and crushed it, letting the chunk of metal fall through the human's surprised fingers. The thug backed up a step in surprise as Kain stalked toward him, filing every step the human took back.

"You think you are the highest thing on the food chain, don't you?" Kain's golden eyes narrowed as he grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him up, continuing, "But guess what, little mortal? You are no longer."

The master vampire's form warped and shifted, growing taller, the shoulders broader, until the master vampire Kain, ruler of Nosgoth, held the mortal in an iron grip, smiling menacingly.

Rose's eyes widened, seeing him resume his old vampiric form, and quickly pulled her friends away.

"Come on," she whispered fiercely. "You _don't_ want to see this."

A scream resonated from the bar and Diana nodded while Kairan gulped audibly. Rose dragged them out the back quickly and walked out toward the hotel. Her friends caught up with her.

"Don't you think we should call the police?" Diana asked.

"And do what?" Rose answered with a helpless shrug. "Tell them that we were held hostages and escaped when a vampire killed them? By tomorrow, there will be nothing left to indicate that those guys were here."

Metowaka looked back at the bar.

"How can you deal with him, Rose?"

Rose sighed. "He's not usually that violent. Or, rather, not that violent around other people. He was just really in a bad mood. Keep this in mind: now that he is aware you know what he is, he's going to expect you to treat him as a ruler. You need to deal with him like he's a predator, because that's what he is. He's not the nice but eccentric teacher all the other students think he is." Rose looked at her friends a moment. "Just be careful, okay? Being around him, or friends with me is a dangerous lot in this life, and if you want to bail out now, you're free to."

The girls shared a long look before Becca chuckled. "Rose, we were just assured twenty minutes ago that vampires are real. That means a lot of things that we've also thought of as stories might be real, too. Sure, it'll probably be dangerous, but we're all ready to go if it means we'll learn something that we didn't know. Right?" She looked back at the other humans. The three girls grinned and nodded.

"And besides," Metowaka added, putting an arm around Rose's shoulder. "You're our friend. What happens to you is no longer just your problem. It's all of ours."

"You have no idea what you're getting into," Rose sighed, but she smiled at them.

"Let it come," Kairan responded and Diana put up her fists into a fighting stance.

"We'll deal with it all, vampires, demons, you name it!" She paused and looked at her compatriots before adding, "As long as I have my ice cream." She pulled out of the group and ran down the street laughing.

"HEY!" The other girls raced after her.

Rose felt the engine turn over and the car start up.

"So, where to this morning?" a voice greeted. The five girls looked over to see the young Kain climb into the car and settle into the only open seat.

"Who invited you?" Rose demanded.

"Look at is this way, Rose," he sighed, "your father sent me to keep an eye on you. We all have seen what kind of trouble follows you around. And besides, how do you think he would react if he could get a hold of me and not you? Better that he not be able to contact either of us."

Rose laughed. "True."

The trip continued on to a full week and a half, and one of the small towns the girls stopped in they had specifically picked because it held a supposedly haunted house. The girls were willing to see if the rumors were true, and with a vampire with them who was willing to help them out should they get into too much trouble, they felt they were well-covered.

Darkness had come and fallen completely by the time they had come to a stop in front of the house. Kain had left them earlier to go feed and told them he would meet up with them later. The girls found the house to be a large three-story mansion that looked broken apart, unkempt, and exactly like every other cliché haunted mansion in movies.

"All ready my hopes are going downhill," Becca commented after agreeing with Diana's statement about it looking cliché.

"Well, we won't know anything till we get inside and stay the night, right?" Kairan pointed out. The girls picked up their stuff and very stealthily slid into the house.

"Where shall we start looking?" Rose inquired.

"The top story," Metowaka answered assuredly. "Then we'll work our way down."

Finding no one had any better ideas or any complaints, the girls tiptoed their way up the stairs. They found the inside of the house was in amazingly good condition for it being supposedly abandoned.

After checking each floor, the girls finally ended on the ground floor.

"Okay, nothing. No ghosts, no ghouls, nada," Kairan sighed.

"Wait," Metowaka protested. "There has to be a basement. There always is."

Diana sighed. "Fine. We'll look for a door to the basement, though I doubt there is one."

Diana's pessimism turned out to be unfounded, as after a half an hour search they finally found what they were looking for. They slid the door open and managed to make out a flight of stairs before they vanished into the darkness. The girls all exchanged a look.

"You first, Becca," Diana finally stated.

"Me? Why don't you go?"

"I didn't even want to look for the basement," she protested. "How about Kairan?"

"No way!"

"Fine," Rose snarled. "I'll go." She grabbed the flashlight and began to slowly creep down the stairs. The rest of her friends followed. Every little squeak and noise was beginning to grate on Rose's nerves, but that was because she was quite scared. The suspense had wedged itself into her mind, and she had a habit of getting grumpy and angry when she was scared. She didn't like to be scared.

Suddenly, the stairs ended on hard ground and her light informed her it was a large storage room of some kind. Something floated across the stale air to her nose and she quickly flipped the light off.

"What are you doing?" Becca hissed. Rose took her hand.

"Take hold of everyone else, but be quiet. There's something down here. Look over there. You can see a light."

The girls looked to the far right, and around what must have been a corner, a bit of light flickered.

"Follow me, and don't worry. I won't run you into anything."

Rose carefully stepped silently toward the light and after a few moments of heart beating silence, finally touched the cold wall. She led the girls to it, and then cautiously peeked around the wall. The other girls quickly arranged themselves so they could see as well.

In the large room beyond a huge fire flickered, its light creating shadows that moved about on the walls. Several robed figures danced or stood gazing at the fire as if mesmerized by it. One of the robed figures—this one in black instead of red or brown—walked toward the fire, intoning something in a strange, sharp language and threw what looked like twigs into the fire. He lifted his head and his words carried to the girls.

"Jurai sona, casita Baal, vith Lucifer, quia diemonya Satan."

The fire burst into a violent green, and the black-robe's face jerked up to stare straight into the girls' eyes.

"They are here!" he shouted to the other robed figures. The beings stood, several pulling out long, ritualistic knives. "Get them! But keep them alive! They are the sacrifices that we were told to collect!"

"Bugger," Rose sighed.

"Rose!" the other four girls shouted.

"This isn't my fault!"


	18. Announcement

Ah, hello everyone. I thought I'd inform you all that due to the fact I've been working on this story series for about two years, I have come to the point where I realized I'm going to need to take a month or two long hiatus. It's by no means dead, I just need some time off from the story. During this time, my other stories will finally see motion and will wake from their slumber.

In the meantime, please enjoy some more flame bashing! It seems that a flamer who very much dislikes my story and me has decide she's going to prove it by being pathetic. I'm not quite sure what that's supposed to be telling me, but it certainly makes plenty of laughable material. So please, feel free to laugh at her reviews.

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From: bunny in the shit hole()

wow! your fanfics really SUCK. i swear, you must've really been bored when you

wrote this shit!

Wow! Your grammar really sucks. And actually, I _was_ quite bored when I wrote this. But you really shouldn't be mocking me when you're the one in the 'shit hole'.

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From: bunny in the shit hole()

haha! even the subcharacters all suck! they're all a bunch of preps and girly

girls. one of them's a stupid fangirl for some dead guy who's stupid enough to

drink something that makes her sick to prove she likes him. one's a noisy whore

who needs to be shot. the others are just plain annoying.

you should really think things over before you decide to post them down!

So, not only is she making fun of _me_, everyone, but she's also making fun of our distinguished Cloti, Vladimir'sAngel, Syvia, and Bloodthirsty! Now, I can stand flaming against me, but you _do not_ insult other people like that. It's quite rude, and shows just how lacking of manners and intelligence you are.

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From: bunny in the shit hole()

another thing: why the hell would you throw in an indian of all people? i mean

come on! there's barely any of them left in the world! why don't you have rose

just kill off all those stupid savages taking up space?

oh, that's right! 'cause rose is a stupid hooker!

just like the author!

Oh, look everyone! Now she truly shows just how narrow-minded she is! Not only is she continuing to bash me, but she's also racist and discriminating against Metowaka because she's Native American. And stupid savages? Sheesh, you are bigot, if your unwieldy brain mass can comprehend what the significance of that term is. And Rose is a hooker? I hardly see how. Hookers get paid, and sluts sleep with multiple men. As Rose has slept with only one man and is quite monogamous, I fail to see how that makes her a hooker.

As for _me_ being a hooker, the only way you'd know that is if you had been one of my clients! *evil grin*

But seriously, how would you know if I was or wasn't a hooker? Ever checked my bio? I'm 18. I believe you have to be quite older than that to be a true hooker, and I certainly wouldn't have been working on my stories this long if I was one. So, sorry love, but I'm in no way a hooker, so the insult is moot, been noted, and easily ignored.

__

From: bunny in the shit hole()

now i really hate lok because of these stupid stories

you must really disappoint many readers 

*ROFL* I have over 200 reviews, and she's telling me my stories disappoint readers?! And actually, nitwit, I know you already hated LoK. I've heard you've tortured several of my other compatriots already. Now you're just picking on me cause you aren't as well liked as me. *grin*

__

From: bunny in the shit hole()

you people actually thought it was great? well i've got something to say for some stupid evanesence fans out there:

it never was and never will be

dragonseer sucks 

i said that, yeah sue me

you all know that you're a bunch of fools!

heh, you suck. and these characters suck. get a life. 

Oh, this is heart-warming. I would like to point out to you people out there that this woman had just emailed me 16, no less than, and that's currently while I'm still _typing_ this, times all in ten minutes. *laughter* And she tells me to get a life . . . Oh, and woman? Yes, I _am_ the queen of assholes, thank you very much, and don't you forget it.

But anyway, I must again turn to Griz with her sage comments in her bio: _I've noticed some flaming going on again, so here's some food for thought for you flamers:_

If you don't like LoK, why are you here? Go read something you do like.

If you don't like the fics, don't review. Save your breath. Trust me, you'll be doing yourself a big favor.

And if you already flamed...it's a shame that lots of us think your ignorance is amusing, isn't it?

Food for thought, isn't it? Oh, wait. I forgot. You obviously don't think if you chose to pick on _me_ of all people.


	19. AAARRRGGGHHHH!

*chibi DragonSeer appears, arms crossed*

Grrrrrr…. Well, this story is going to be stopping for a while, whilst I cry over the end of Legacy of Kain: Defiance. So much work…. Just all obliterated in five minutes of game….

If you can't tell, I played and beat Legacy of Kain: Defiance. I won't give away the story of the game, but all I'm going to say is I have to sit down and completely re-write the first story to make room for a _lot_ of things that happened in it. Needless to say, the author is very annoyed. Those of you who have played it and beaten it will know what I refer to.

So, anyway…. *walks over to the BO2/TR crossover and begins to work on it, pouting* At least THIS game had no real story continuity with the series. *grumbles* And don't worry, the TR/SR series is the only one that's momentarily paused while I re-write it. I'm still working on my others. *sighs again* If any of you want to know what happened in the game, email me and I'll tell you, but I don't want to give it away for everyone who hasn't.

On the plus side, I found the game (except for the end) VERY enjoyable, thorough, and very few bugs or problems with it. The voice acting was great, as was the story. ^^ And sadly, as mad as I am at the end of the game, they pulled it off well.

Okay, enough harping. I need to go play BO2 again…..


	20. Old Friends, New Reunions

A/N: Okay, after much thinking, I have decided I'm going to go BLAH! to remaking the series in allowance for Defiance, and just continue it. I put too much work into it, and too many of you like it to just destroy it like that, so I'll see it through to the end.

            Many thanks go to Blood Angel X for your quite long review, and I'm glad you liked the stories as much as you did. I was always afraid I pushed the Kain/Rose pairing too fast, and when I do rewrite it (which I will one day in the far future), I'll slow that down.

            And everyone, thank you for your patience with my bitching and moaning. There will be a _great_ decrease in that. My last update was written in my 'I don't like what they did to this' mood, and I really should have held off before writing that. So, now I turn your attention from my complaining (which will stop now ^^; ) and away from the girls and their demon-worshiper problems, to a quaint little mountain in Transylvania…

            Lara stretched slowly as she walked down the hill, hearing Raziel heading through the trees far to her right. She stopped suddenly, her fingers looping loosely around her pistols, eyes quickly taking in the forest. Raziel had been interested in the legends of vampires on Earth, and there had recently been a few rumors of "Dracula" returning. They were both quickly moving through a forest in Transylvania, heading toward the heart of the rumors. As always, it was at as large mountain with a ruined castle. Lara had to admit that it was a better site than some of her adventures. The main part of the jaunt she wasn't looking forward to was the one she was faced with right now: getting up the mountain.

            "Loosing your taste for the venture?" Raziel inquired behind her, a grin in his voice.

            "Of course not. This is the part that keeps me in shape."

            "That and the rather extensive gym in the back of the mansion," he chuckled as he stepped up next to her. Both looked up for a long moment, then in unspoken agreement, they started climbing.

            The mountainside was nicely riveted and sloped, so Lara didn't find herself having too much trouble on the climb up. She didn't even have to retrieve the climbing gear and its pins to scale the side.

            After a few hours, she pulled herself up over the side. Raziel slid down a rock from nearby, haven gone a slightly longer way to get a look at the castle and its structure. At her look, he shook his head simply.

            "It's in near-complete ruin. The basic configuration is still in existence, but most of the outer walls and hallways have fallen apart."

            "Essentially, the perfect place for a vampire," Lara teased. Raziel eyed her with a raised eyebrow.

            "Not for any vampire I know… They all adore their comforts far too much to give them up for a place out of the way like this."

            Lara nodded silently in agreement before turning to look at the fortress. The stonework had turned a strange mixture of brown and green as ivy and brown moss had grown up the sides and over the archways. The large entrance had once housed a pair of wooden double doors, but the doors had long fallen away and rotted. Lara exchanged a look with Raziel and he shrugged and indicated inward. Both paced quietly in.

            Wind whistled through the hallways, creating a barren effect. Once there had been parties and grandiose dinners in the main hall. Now, everything was broken and forgotten, covered in leaves and dust. Rats raced away from the two intruders, squeaking in annoyance, but other than that, the castle was dead silent.

            Suddenly, Raziel's head perked up, a pointed ear aimed down a hall. Trusting in his senses, Lara followed him as he began walking noiselessly down the passage. The Reaver spiraled down around his claws as he stepped into a large antechamber, one whose walls were actually still mostly intact. Standing at the other end of the room was a figure both of them recognized.

            "Vorador?" both Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver questioned in amazement. The vampire turned to glance at them, an eye ridge raised, then smiled broadly as he moved toward them fully.

            "Lara, Raziel."

            "What are you doing here?" Raziel inquired.

            "I decided it would be wise to discover as much as I could about this world, seeing as they will be connected for quite a while. A few of my children had brought back rumors of an old legendary vampire here, and I was inspecting his old haunt to see if I could surmise whether there was any truth to the myths or not."

            Lara chuckled dryly.

            "Why does this sound so familiar?" She shook her head and took a seat in one of the chairs Vorador must have had brought up. Both Nosgothic men also sat down.

            "Does Kain know you're here?" Lara asked curiously. Vorador sighed irritably.

            "Oh yes, I seem to have forgotten to check up with _Uncle_ Kain on whether or not my time here was welcome or wanted."

            Lara raised a hand. "Terribly sorry, I hadn't intended to offend."

            Vorador chuckled dryly. "No offense is taken, Lara. It just seems to be that sometimes people forget I am nearly twice Kain's age, and because he stylizes himself the Emperor of Nosgoth does not mean all vampires answer to him."

            Raziel nodded. "It also helps the annoyance that you had to give him advice when he was but a fledgling, doesn't it?" The elder vampire nodded with a genuine smile.

            "Speaking of him, where is Kain?" Vorador questioned.

            "He is currently in America keeping an eye over our daughter," Raziel answered. Vorador blinked at them in shock.

            "You left _him_ watching over Rose?"

            "I'm sure they're fine," Lara assured them. Vorador and Raziel exchanged a look.

            "Would you like me to send someone to keep an eye on both of them?" Vorador offered Raziel. The Soul Reaver nodded.

            "Yes."


	21. New and Old Conflicts for the Emperor an...

A/N: Okay, guys, early New Year's present. For all of you who complained about a short chapter last update, here is a _seven-page_ update for ya all. ^_^

            "Oh bugger," Rose sighed before dropping back into a crouch. She waited till the demon-worshipers were only a few paces away from her before she did the opposite of the sane thing: she ran toward them instead of away.

            "Um, what is she doing?" Diana demanded.

            "I have no idea…" Kairan answered.

            Rose heard their voices, but didn't pay much attention to them as she weaved out of the way of long blades that were almost short swords. She wasn't sure how well-trained these men were, but she was hoping she could stall them at least long enough for her friends to get the hell out of there.

            Becca, Kairan, Metowaka, and Diana were all four steps and one flight of stairs ahead of her. Unfortunately for them, they were stopped at the trapdoor to the upper levels as it opened and a large from blinked down at them.

            "Professor Kain!" Metowaka yelped in surprise. His golden eyes narrowed as he glanced down the stairs.

            "What have you girls gotten yourselves into this time?" he sighed. The girls moved to the side quickly to let him pace down the stairs. He headed into the large room beyond to see Rose dodge away from one of the robed individuals to have another one behind her slam his blade through her heart.

            The girls, who had sneaked slowly after Kain, saw Rose get backstabbed, and screamed, "Rose!" which was promptly followed up by shouts of "Bastards!" and other obscenities and cries of sorrow. Kain just stood there for a long moment, glaring at the humans.

            "That had better not have been my Rose you just killed."

            There was a moment of silence as the leader of the demon-worshipers moved to the front, then stopped suddenly Becca gave a yelp of surprise. Everyone glanced to see what had surprised her except for Kain who continued to glare at the humans. The girls and the demon-worshipers paled as they saw Rose standing there, cracking her knuckles, her fingers now two sharp claws and a thumb claw, her eyes glowing faintly white.

            "That HURT." She stepped passed her friends who were all staring at her in amazement. Kain chuckled and stalked slowly around the demon-worshipers, shedding his nice professor form and slipping back to his true form.

            "You made a very dangerous mistake when you chose to attack these girls," Kain stated as he continued his circuit around the humans, making them extremely nervous. "Not only do they have me protecting them, but one of their own isn't very human either."

            Rose smirked, letting a fang show, concentrated, and her wings exploded out of her back. She fixed her eyes upon the worshiper that had run her through and smiled cruelly. The human twitched nervously with her hungry yellow-green orbs fastened onto him. Kain noticed her gaze.

            "How long has it been since you've fed, Rose?"

            "Nearly a month," she answered in an almost pouting tone.

            "Girls," Kain looked past the worshipers and Rose at her friends, "you might want to escape while you can. This is going to get…messy."

            The four girls quickly darted out of the room, and got as far to the stairs before they all exchanged a look. Curiosity began to nag at each of them and in an unspoken agreement, they crept silently back to peer around the corner. They just couldn't let the chance of finally knowing what was going on with their friend slip passed them because they were afraid of a little bloodshed.

            Kain calmly grabbed one of the closest worshipers to him by the face and lifted him into the air. The boy waved the ritual knife at him, and Kain caught his wrist with disgust, snapping the weak bone with only minimal effort. The worshiper let out a scream of pain and the vampire simply threw him against the wall. A sickening crack sounded into the thick silence as the human's cries ceased. Kain picked up the knife, eyed it with disgust, and tossed it to Rose. The crossbreed, taught by her father since before she could remember to hold sharp, pointy things, caught it easily.

            "I'd suggest running," Rose giggled.

            "And what good would that do us?" the leader demanded. "We'd have to get passed you."

            "Yes, but you running would make it more fun for us."

            The worshipers moved together and the leader chuckled dryly.

            "You will strike at no more of us. Set will not let you."

            This caused both Kain and Rose to hesitate a moment.

            "Who?" Rose asked blankly.

            "What are you babbling about now?" Kain inquired irritably. "Is this some 'mystical' savior who's going to come help you?"

            The leader of the cult looked like he was about to explode in annoyance.

            "No, Set! Not a savior, but demon-god, a being stronger than God Himself! He will not allow you to strike down his favored servants—"

            "I don't know about you, Rose," Kain interrupted, "but I think I'm getting tired of this little religious rant."

            "It is extremely boring," Rose agreed.

            "Boring?" the leader snapped. "I'll show you boring!" He tipped his face back, so he was looking upward, but his eyes were tightly shut.

            "Set, lord of death and night, hear my plea! Protect your worshippers from these upstarts!"

            "Upstarts?" Kain repeated with a raised eyebrow and kept himself from laughing at their idiocy.

            "Set, aid us!"

            "I grow tired of this," the master vampire sighed as he almost lazily released a telekinetic blast to slam into the leader. It dove toward him, but when it hit the fire, the flames changed to black as obsidian, catching the blast in its depths. Kain watched this with a raised eyebrow, finally interested.

            "Now, _that_ has never happened before."

            "You see?" The cult leader sounded smug. "Our lord will not allow us to be hurt."

            Kain wasn't given the time to respond as the fire suddenly pulled back and spat the bolt back at him. Instinctively reacting, Kain shifted to mist form and dodged away, leaving the blast to smash into the wall and leave a crater. Kain reformed his body and smirked.

            "This just got more interesting."

            The eminent all-out brawl finally exploded when Rose finally got too annoyed with the leader and threw a punch at the back of his head. The man should have gone flailing forward onto his face. Instead, he stepped forward once to regain his footing before turning on her with a glare. He slashed at her with the blade and she dodged quickly, dropping and moving away, her wings pumping slightly to add to her movement.

            Several screams of pain and absolute seconds of anarchy later, Kain and Rose found a moment of rest back to back in the center of the worshipers, some down, hurt, others dead, but a good portion remained alive. A good portion were still alive specifically because Kain was toying with them. He wasn't in the mood to kill them all quickly. Besides, it was good training for Rose.

            "Enjoying yourself?" he asked the crossbreed as he dug his claws into one of the humans who had drawn too close. Rose panted for a moment before nodding.

            "Immensely." She brought the blade to her lips and licked a bit of the blood there, feeling it invigorate her and infuse her body with energy again. She could keep this up for hours. Her enemies were only human, after all.

            Suddenly, the fire leapt up again. It had remained black the entire fight, but now it actually lifted entirely off its base, shifting into the form to two, long snakes that swung quickly through the air, seeking something. The leader, ribs broken and bruised, looked up just as both lunged on him, burying into his eyes. He gave a scream, which stopped mid-way and collapsed. The humans pulled back, uneasy, not sure what to do. Then, their leader stood in one, flawless, inhuman movement. His eyes were entirely gone, replaced by black flames.

            "Who art thou who would attack my children?" a voice oozed out of the leader's mouth, deep, dark, and sounding like it was reverberating through a hundred catacombs.

            "Ah, so does these humans' mysterious 'Set' finally choose to reveal himself?" Kain moved slightly, making sure he was ever so slightly between Rose and this creature. Humans, he knew she could handle. Possessed humans, he wasn't quite so sure of.

            The creature turned toward him slightly, and cocked its head to the side, as if considering the vampire.

            "You are like one of us, but you have something in you that keeps you distinctly separate from what we are."

            Kain eyed the creature before him.

            "And just what do you mean?"

            "It means," the creature pulled its human body up, as if not feeling the wounds, "that you will die easily!"

            It moved forward to attack the vampire, and a tongue of black flame shaped like a snake slid down its arm to swallow up the knife, turning it into a writhing, poisoned-looking kriss. Kain quickly moved out of the blade's way, and smirked. Here was a battle worth his time.

            "Take the humans, Rose."

            "Gotcha."

            The four girls who were still watching winced as they beheld not a bit of blood or a normal brawl like they expected, but a bloodbath of intense proportions, and the only thing that made it bearable was the fact that there was magic being blasted back and forth between Kain and the creature wreathed in obsidian flames. It added the necessary touch of illusion that it wasn't real.

            Kain found himself hard-pressed to get through the creature's fire aura at first, until he kicked up one of the discarded ritual knifes and threw it with deadly accuracy into one of the glowing eyes. The thing let out a screech of agony, and the fire all down the left side died out. It pulled away, hissing, and Kain pressed his advantage, slashing with claws into the creature's still-human body.

            Rose, on the other hand, was having an easy time of it. The humans had been re-energized by their demon-god's hand, but seeing him falter and fail under Kain's assault was slowly eating away at their morale. When she was down to a few, Rose took hold of one, pulled him close, and bit into him, overtaken by the battle lust and far beyond caring. The other humans stumbled away as their compatriot screamed in pain. Rose let him drop when he was low of blood, close to the brink of death, but not quite. She'd finish him later. She turned her attentions to the last remaining few and slaughtered them with very little resistance.

            At the same time, Kain moved in for a killing blow. The body crumpled, leaving a form of fire. It screeched and pulled back, slowly loosing its solidity.

            "Fine," it hissed. "You win this round, brother of the night. But you will not win next time." In its clutches, it held a single white ball.

            "But I will be taking this with me."

            "Oh, no you won't," Rose retorted, having watched the last strike. She concentrated a moment and pulled in, dragging what she knew to be the soul of the cult leader away from the form and into her mouth. She fell back a pace and wobbled on her feet, the soul's vibrant life force running through her veins. The fire being let out a screech of anger as it faded completely.

            Kain glanced around and found one of the still-alive cultists. He picked the man up bodily, ripped away the hood, and bit down, ignoring the cried protest from the human. He stopped suddenly, leaving the wound bleeding, and pulled Rose roughly over, twisting the human's head so she could reach the wound. Her awoken vampiric hunger caught the scent, and without complaint, she bit down onto the bleeding wound. Kain watched her feed for a moment before neatly biting into his wrist. The human didn't have nearly enough blood to fill either of the two if they had been truly hungry, but Kain needed only a small amount to fill up what was used in the fight, and Rose was just dealing with the vampiric needs.

            Once it was drained completely, Rose let the body drop, and stepped over it, pressing her lips to Kain's. With the hunger for blood satisfied, she still had to deal with the following lust. The vampire tightened his grip around her, fangs brushing her skin. He pulled back and licked away a touch of blood that had crept from the corner of her lips. He watched in amusement as she tried to catch his tongue between her teeth, but was nowhere fast enough. She let out a slight pouting whimper, but he shushed her.

            "We have guests."

            Rose looked at him uncomprehendingly for a moment, and he glanced over toward the hall where the four girls were peeking over, eyes wide. The girls were a reality check for Rose, and she shook her head a few times, trying to regain control. She forced down the inhuman sides of her that were clamoring for attention and grinned sheepishly at them. As one, the girls' eyes went wide and Rose winced, realizing she probably still had blood on her lips and teeth. Kain, who was standing behind her because of the way she turned, wiped her lips with a handkerchief.

            "Clean up after your dinner, Rose."

            "Merf!" she protested. She glared back at him. "You're a lot of help."

            "Well, what would you like me to do?" he asked sardonically. "Make them forget this ever happened?"

            "No, that won't help," she sighed. "They need to know."

            "As you wish." Kain walked passed her, ignoring the destruction around them, and headed for the stairs back up. The girls pulled away from him, almost comically. He stopped and looked down at them.

            "I don't bite…" He laughed at their stares and continued up. Rose walked out of the pile of bodies and over to the girls who eyed her nervously.

            "Ah-heh, how about we go up?"

            Rose walked up the stairs to the first floor of the house and plopped down on the floor. The girls eyed her worriedly, but sat down in a semi circle in front of her. A long moment of tense silence passed.

            "So, does this mean you're a vampire?" Diana finally asked excitedly. Rose's eyebrows shot up, having not expected the enthusiasm.

            "Not exactly…"

            "Did sleeping with a vampire start turning you into one?" Kairan asked curiously.

            "Er… no."

            "Are you a half-breed vampire/human like BloodRayne?" Metowaka queried.

            "No! Would you guys listen to me before you ask?"

            "So, are you a bitten human servant?" Becca finished.

            "Does this look like the set of Blade to you?!" Rose sighed. "No. I am, for lack of a better term, a freak of nature. I am human, but I am also vampire, and, additionally, made up of something called a soul wraith, a creature that feeds off the souls of the dead."

            There was a long moment of silence before Becca finally said, "That bites." A round of groaning filled the group and Metowaka threw the flashlight Diana had recovered at her.

            "Well, I have to say, that ball of light that the fiery thing had was certainly _sucked_ into its doom," Kairan added cheerfully. Rose groaned and Diana and Metowaka threatened Kairan's life.

            "I'm so glad my existence gives you the thing you need to survive."

            "Blood?" Metowaka teased.

            "No, puns."

            "But they're punny!" Diana laughed. Rose glared at her.

            "Someone please take her out to the street to be shot. Seriously, guys, I wanted you to know what I actually am. I was serious when I told you that it was dangerous being my friend. And no, I did not mean because I'd eat you. I have no intention of doing that! You're my friends, after all."

            The girls exchanged a look.

            "Well, we'll be honest, Rose," Metowaka sighed. "You have to give it to us, we are kinda nervous about it. I mean, considering your uncle, or professor, or guardian, or whatever the hell Kain is to you, is a vampire, and you're some…thing. It does give us reason to be worried." The girl put her hand out for Rose to take. Rose accepted the offer, her fingers back to being normal human hands.

            "You can count on us," Metowaka finished. "We may be a bit freaked of you now, but we won't leave you alone. You can count on us if you need it."

            "Thanks, guys," Rose smiled. "That means a lot to me."

            "Good!" Becca stood. "Now, Rose, if you'll excuse us, but we are going to get plastered to forget about tonight."

            "Have fun," Rose answered with a laugh. "I'll pick up your pieces when you get back to the car."

 *****************

            Rose groaned deeply. She was up early, it was Monday, school had started again, it was cold, and she hadn't seen Kain for two days. She was tired, grouchy, and generically in a bad mood. The other girls had gone home to catch up on much needed sleep and to do last-minute homework, so she hadn't heard from them, either.

            "Good-morning to you, flower," a voice sarcastically teased. Rose looked up, her frustrated expression dissolving as she recognized Kain's voice.

            "Morning!" she greeted, suddenly much happier than she had been a second before. Kain stepped up to her, standing closer than was normally accepted and smirked down at her.

            "That was quite a mood change."

            "That's cause I finally get to see you."

            "GET AWAY FROM HIM!" a male voice roared abruptly. Rose's eyes widened and she looked around just in time to see a tall form grab her and sweep her away from Kain.

            "What in hell?" the vampire lord demanded. He growled deeply in his throat and took off after the creature that would dare take Rose from him. Rose, meanwhile, struggled in an iron grip, unable to see her captor's face. She hissed and continued to squiggle.

            "Let me go!"

            "Stop struggling!" he snapped back. "I'm saving your life! He was going to kill you!"

            "Why the hell would he do—"

            She was stopped mid-sentence as he jumped from his running path up on top of one of the buildings. Rose stared at the scenery change. No human could jump like that, especially with Rose's weight. As light as she looked, the vampire and soul reaver in her made her body more heavily built than her frame would look like it would weigh.

            Her captor stopped, and she could see out of the corner of her eye two more pairs of booted feet.

            "He's following. Keep him busy while I get this human to a safe place."

            "All right."

            "He's going to kill us, you know," the second voice of the two newcomers sighed. Both were male.

            "Just do it."

            The two men darted down the roof and dropped to the ground below, and Rose's captor lifted her like she was a rag doll so she could see his face. It was pale, and had high cheekbones, with dark eyes set into the face. He wore a cap, urban camo pants, and a thick, leather jacket. Rose did the most sensible thing she could think of upon being kidnapped; she punched him. His head twisted with the blow, but he stayed standing.

            "Put me down!" she demanded.       

            "You must be Rose Croft," he sighed deeply.

            "How'd you guess?" she asked dryly.

            "The potent right hook was a clue." He set her down. "Now, will you stop struggling? I saved you from getting eaten."

            "Eaten? By who? Kain?!"

            At the same moment, an explosion sounded from the ground, and the two men who had jumped off came flying back through the air to smash in hurt piles near Rose's captor. There was a moment of silence before Kain lithely jumped up onto the roof.

            "_Sebastian_," the master vampire hissed. Rose's captor turned to focus entirely upon him.

            "Hello, Kain."

            Kain stalked closer to him and tossed a disgusted look at the two heaps on either side of Sebastian.

            "I see you brought along Marcus and Faustus." He cracked his knuckles. "Tell me, just how are you all still alive? I seem to remember quite vividly when I killed the lot of you."

            Sebastian winced slightly. "Yes, well, it seems when Mrs. Croft came blithely through our world rearranging things, it somehow twisted it so that we were revived." He hesitated, as if he was having trouble getting the next sentence out of his mouth.

            "We're here to offer our… apologies for what happened. We were also sent by Vorador to keep an eye on you two."

            "So don't kill us again, please?" the one who was presumably Faustus coughed. He reached into his coat, a long, red leather trench coat and handed Kain a letter.

            "Raziel sent this. Can we get off the roof now?"

            "I heartily agree," Rose sighed. "We're going to draw a crowd soon."


	22. Popcorn Popper

_(Look, I'm not dead. )_

Rose sat down heavily at her dining room table, plopping her books down next to her. The conversation between the vampires had consisted mostly of information of some 'enemy' coming back, and the three younger vampires had been sent by her father to watch over her. Irritatingly, this meant that they'd be popping in on her randomly, and Raziel had "insisted" (read: threatened everyone involved) that one of them would be moving in with her as a roommate. None of the vampires, and certainly not the crossbreed, had been happy about that. The boys had drawn straws to see who got stuck with the chore of babysitting.

"What is this thing?" a male voice growled from in the kitchen. Rose looked up and answered tiredly.

"That's a popcorn popper, Sebastian. You put corn kernels in it, put it over a fire, and let them pop into popcorn."

The vampire set the contraption down with surprising gentleness and shook his head. "Why in the world would you want to do that?"

"Because it tastes good."

"I'll take your word for that."

She was about to add a bad pun, but the phone rang, cutting her off. She reached over and picked it up.

"Ello?"

"Hi Rose!"

"Hello, Kairan. What can I do for you?"

"I've got a question for you." Kairan's voice lessened to a confidential near-whisper.

"Oh?"

"Yeah… What's it like to date a professor?"

"Eh?" Rose blinked at the phone a few times in surprise. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Call me curious."

"Okay, Curious. Well, it isn't really that amazing. It's kinda annoying simply because you can't really do anything at school without worrying that someone's going to catch you."

"But doesn't the possibility of getting caught add to the whole ordeal?"

"Yes, I suppose it does." Rose grinned in memory of her experiences.

"How does one go about dating a one?"

"What?" The crossbreed sat up, careful to keep the phone from dropping. "Why? Who have you got your eye on, Kairan?"

"… Who says I've got my eye on anyone?" Her voice was falsely innocent, and Rose guessed it was intended to be. She smirked at her friend, even though she knew Kairan couldn't see it.

"Come on, tell me. Who caught your interest?"

"Did you hear that our school was extending its sports program and hiring new teachers for it?"

"Yeah," Rose nodded.

"Well, Diana and I stuck around to see who the new teachers were going to be… And I happened to see the new baseball coach… He's really cute."

Rose could tell Kairan was smiling at the memory just by the warmth in her tone. The crossbreed had to suppress a chuckle.

"So you want to start dating him, huh?" Rose smirked. "Well, in all honesty, I can't really help you that much. I didn't really start dating Kain. He rather went and decided we would be dating. I didn't get much say in it."

On the other end, Kairan laughed. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"Because you know Kain?" Rose retorted. "But tomorrow I want to see who this guy is, okay?"

"Sure. I'll see you then!"

"Bye!"

Rose looked at the phone for a moment before shaking her head and putting it back down on the receiver.

"There he is!" Kairan lightly smacked her friend on the back to get her attention. Rose, who had just taken a bite of her lunch, coughed a few times before looking around. She followed Kairan's indication and spotted–

"Oh, you're joking me, right?"

"Joking? He's sooooo pretty!"

"Trust me, Kairan, you don't want to get involved with that one."

"Hey, is it just me, or does he look like he's coming this way?" Metowaka inquired, looking toward the teacher.

"Oh no," Rose groaned.

The object of Kairan's interest plopped down across from Rose, making sure to move his red trench coat to the side first.

"Hello, Rose."

"Hi, Faustus. A baseball coach, huh?"

"Of course." The vampire looked down at his hands as if studying his nails. "The game is amazingly simple to understand. I would have thought these people would have come up with something a little more impressive. But with _my_ speed, it will be an effortless challenge." He placed his hands back onto the table.

"So, how is Sebastian dealing with living with you?"

"Wait, wait," Becca interrupted. "As in the new professor of _physics_?"

"Physics?" Rose repeated, blinking.

"That would be him," Faustus nodded.

Becca turned to Rose, asking, "You've got the professor living with you? That's it! I'm coming over."

"What?" Rose stared at her. Faustus excused himself amusedly and walked off toward the back of the cafeteria. "You mean it takes me getting some eye candy to move into my apartment to get you over?"

"Ahem," a cool voice interrupted. Both looked over at Kairan.

"I hate to break in, but…" She grabbed Rose's face so the crossbreed stared into her human friend's eyes. "You know the man who just left our table?!"

Rose winced and pulled back. "Yeah, I do, and that's exactly why you shouldn't want to get involved with him. He's like Kain."

"You mean an evil, maniacal asshole, or a vampire?"

Rose hesitated a moment before answering, "A little bit of column A, a little bit of column B…"

"Oh." Kairan seemed to consider the information for a moment before a wide grin broke out across her face. "Well, I always did have a thing for assholes!"

Rose sighed. "No matter what I tell you, you're still going to try and get involved with him, huh?"

"Mm, she might not be the only one…" Becca murmured, looking toward where Faustus had met up with Sebastian who had just walked into the cafeteria. Both vampires looked out over the students with an equal "so many meals, so little time" expression.

"Oh brother." Rose looked at Diana and Metowaka. "You two aren't going to go off and try and get involved with them are you?"

Both Diana and Metowaka were following the stares of the other two girls, but they shook their heads.

"Not my type," Diana answered.

"I think the knowledge of what you are is enough vampirism for me," Metowaka stated.

"Me too," Diana agreed.

"Oh good," Rose responded, and then eyed them. "…I think." She looked back at the two vampires and sighed again.

"One's a professor of physics, the other's a baseball couch. I wonder what Marcus is doing, cause I doubt he missed this wagon."

"Mathematics," a voice promptly responded from behind her head. She jumped before twisting around to see the mind-controlling vampire sitting at a table next to her. She stared at him for a few moments, blinking.

"Math?"

"Of course. The study of logic, theology and mathematics were just beginning to blossom in Nosgoth during our age, and seeing how far all three have come in this world greatly interested me."

"But why math and not logic or theology then?"

He grimaced as he answered, "Though I enjoy both topics, the history of this world has been largely different from our own, so both the courses of logic and theology are greatly changed from what I have studied. Strangely enough, mathematics has remained the same, although this world's has advanced far beyond Nosgoth's."

"Oh." Rose scratched the back of her head, considering his explanation, and in her silence, he stood.

"If you will excuse me, I believe I shall catch up to my colleagues." He waded calmly through the tables and humans toward the opposing door where Faustus and Sebastian had vanished. Rose watched him go before shaking her head and letting it fall to hit the table lightly.

"Rose?" Metowaka asked. "Just how many vampires are running around here right now?"

"And what's this Nosgoth?" Becca added.

"There are four vampires now, not counting myself," Rose answered glumly, "and Nosgoth is the name of the world they came from." She sat up as she heard the four shuffle about, exchanging looks. Her eyebrows knit together in concern when she saw an interested expression on their faces.

"Are there more vampires on Nosgoth?" Kairan asked. "And are they as cute as these ones?"

"Um… yes and I don't know. I've never been there."

"You haven't?" Diana looked at her curiously. "Why not?"

"Just never been there. Going there hasn't ever really come up with my parents."

The four exchanged a look again.

"So, Rose…" Becca purred. "If you ever happen to get to go, you'll remember we want to come along, right?"

"Cause you know we'd enjoy a vacation," Kairan continued without missing a beat. "And it would certainly be an adventure of adventures…"

Rose laughed. "No. I'll remember you all if it comes up, but if _I'm_ going to Nosgoth, it's probably too dangerous to safely bring you along."

"Well then," Kairan nodded, "we'll just have to find out when you are going and ambush you half-way there."

Rose smiled and shook her head. "I love you guys, I really do. You're so much fun to hang around with."

"Why thank you," all four responded simultaneously.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a second, I need to go throw away my trash." Rose stood and walked away from the table toward the large waste receptacles. The four girls quickly moved in slightly toward each other.

"She really isn't going to let us go and summer's coming up," Metowaka stated. "Once summer vacation starts, she goes back to England, and we can't go with her if we don't get her to want to take us along."

"Not a problem," Becca answered, an evil grin across her face. She waved a piece of paper in front of them. "I've got her address in England right here."

Once Rose came back, all the girls were comfortably seated and greeted her with innocent smiles. She raised an eyebrow at them before laughing.

"What were you four planning?"

"Absolutely nothing," Diana responded.

"I don't believe you."

"Then you're smarter than we thought you were."

"Hey…"


End file.
